


Schrödinger's Romance: The Wedding!

by lesbuchanan



Series: Schrödinger's Universe [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Wedding Fluff, Wedding Planning, happy endings (obviously), unnecessary drama because I'm a piece of shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-16 20:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9288272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbuchanan/pseuds/lesbuchanan
Summary: The boys are back by popular demand (and because I'm not yet ready to let them go), and wedding bells are chiming!Seven years after they first met, Steve and Bucky are knuckling down and planning their wedding, whilst also trying to tackle general adult life. Will they manage to come together and create the perfect wedding? Or will Bucky have to watch his dreams get smashed to pieces?Of course he won't, I'm not a fucking monster.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of a short prologue rather than a fully fledged chapter just so we can all get back into where their lives are at now. I'm posting this to give myself the illusion of progress so please do not yell at me when you realise there's pretty much no content here.

“Bucky. Wake up. Get up, you dick, this is important.”

Before Bucky could respond, there was a pillow smacking him in the face, jolting him into consciousness. Groaning, he rolled onto his back and peered up at Steve through the darkness.

“What is it?” He grumbled, reaching over to turn the lamp on.

“Where’s my shirt?”

Bucky dragged his hand down his face and sighed. “Babe, it’s 6am. Can you be more specific?”

“The blue one, with stripes.” Steve explained as he gestured vaguely to his chest, looking down at him from the end of the bed. “I’ve looked everywhere for it.”

“I put it in the laundry.”

“What? Why? I was gonna wear it today. I had an entire outfit planned entirely around that shirt.”

“You spilled pasta all over it on Thursday.” Bucky told him. The memory of his boyfriend stumbling over to him with a dripping red stain on his shirt, and the subsequent heart attack he’d almost had was still very clear in his mind, but apparently Steve had made quick work of forgetting it.  

“I didn’t.” He mumbled, folding his arms grumpily. “I’m gonna go find it.”

Shrugging, Bucky curled up under the duvet, listening to the sound of Steve’s footsteps growing fainter, and then gradually louder as he came back into the room and flopped down on the bed next to him.

“Did you find it?” He asked as he rolled over to face him.

“Yeah.” Steve mumbled quietly. “Had pasta sauce on it.”

Bucky smirked, humming contentedly when Steve wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer. “’M sorry I woke you up.” He whispered as Bucky nestled his head against his chest.

“S’okay.” Bucky murmured sleepily. “Why were you planning your outfit at 6am?”

“I don’t know. I’m excited.”

“You’re excited to meet our wedding planner?”

“Aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah, obviously. But it’s not something I’d lose sleep over.” He smirked, lacing their fingers together and squeezing his hand.

It had been over a year since Steve had proposed. They’d been trying to save up enough money to pay for everything, but Bucky had been stuck working the front desk at the local police station for two years now, and Steve was still working minimum wage jobs while he tried to turn his art commissions into a business, so they didn’t exactly rake in a huge amount of money between them. Bucky had already made peace with the fact that they probably wouldn’t be able to afford an actual wedding until they were 50. He liked being engaged. More specifically he liked being able to call Steve his fiancé at every possible opportunity. ‘Hi, have you met my fiancé, Steve?’. ‘No, mom, I can’t come over this weekend. Me and my fiancé are going to the beach.’. ‘Can you pass me the remote, fiancé?”.  
The rest of his family, on the other hand, did not share his patience. From the minute they announced their engagement he’d been bombarded with constant questions about when they would be getting married. His mom texted him almost daily with links to wedding planning websites, or with photos of wedding cakes. Fortunately, she was finally put out of her misery at his birthday last month, when Tony dramatically announced he was going to pay for their wedding because he was tired of them putting it off and he wanted to see his godson married some time before his 100th birthday.

Sighing, he snuggled closer to Steve, wrapping his arms and legs around him and squeezing him tightly. “When are we gonna have our wedding?” He mumbled as he pressed his face into the crook of Steve’s neck.

“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.” Steve shrugged. “We probably should have discussed this sooner.”

“We’ve known about this consultation for two weeks now and we haven’t even decided when to have the wedding.”

“We’re bad adults.”

They both stared at each other for a moment before collapsing into a fit of giggles, clinging on to each other and rolling over on the bed. It was a few minutes before Bucky managed to regain his composure, smirking and bumping their noses together.

“September. We’re gonna get married in September.”

“Did you just say the first month that came into your head?” Steve smirked, chuckling when Bucky nodded.

“Yeah, but I’ve had almost twenty seconds to think about it now and, logically, it’s a good month.”

“Why? Nothing happens in September?”

“Exactly. Nothing else is gonna be happening that month, so it’ll be easy to remember, and it means nobody’s gonna have any plans.”

Steve blinked at him, rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling. “That was good adulting.”

“I know.” Bucky said proudly, chewing on his lip thoughtfully for a moment before sitting upright. “Where are our children?”

“Probably on the couch, calm down.”

“I don’t like Opi walking around on her own. She bumps into things.”

“You bump into things all the time, but I still let you leave the house unsupervised.”

“I’m not that bad.” Bucky mumbled as he stood up, narrowing his eyes when Steve snorted at him.

“You hospitalised yourself by walking into a lamp two months ago.”

Bucky ignored him and walked out into the sitting room, clutching his chest when he saw the two cats curled up on the couch together.  
They’d had Opi for just over a month now. Steve brought the tiny Siamese kitten home after rescuing her from a drain, insisting they were going to take her to a shelter once she was healthy. But after taking her to the vet to get her infected eye removed, and watching Meg help her walk around as she readjusted, they’d both gotten way too attached to give her up. Bucky thought Optimus was a great name, but Steve still adamantly refused to call her that, so Opi stuck.  
Meg was incredibly protective of her and had curled himself around the kitten, using his paw to stop her from moving away. Bucky stared at them for a moment, overwhelmed by the level of cuteness he was witnessing.

“Steve!” He yelled, not taking his eyes off them. “Steve, the cats are spooning!”

There was a loud thud in the bedroom that he assumed was Steve jumping out of the bed, followed by the sound of him sprinting around the corner to where he was standing.

“Oh my god.” He whispered when he saw them, clinging on to Bucky’s arm. “Oh my god. Where’s the camera? We need pictures.”

Bucky watched as Steve ran across the room, digging through the drawer in their desk for his camera.

“You know what would be cute?” He said as Steve crouched down by the couch, trying to get a good angle for a photo. “We should get, like, a maternity shoot, but with the cats.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna do that.” Steve mumbled, not taking his eyes away from the camera.

“Why not?”

“We’re already dangerously close to being crazy cat people. I’m not crossing that line.”

“Steve, you are on the floor using a $500 camera to take photos of our cats sleeping. The line was crossed a long time ago.”

Steve frowned, setting the camera down on the coffee table and slumping back against it. “I’m a crazy cat person.” He said quietly. “It’s happened. You know I almost set up an Instagram for Opi yesterday? How did this become my life?”

Giggling to himself, Bucky sat down next to him, wrapping his arms around Steve’s neck and pulling him down to kiss his forehead.

“It’s okay to love our children.”

“They’re not our.. you aren’t helping.” Steve sighed, leaning his head on Bucky’s shoulder.

“You know what will make you feel better?”

“We’re not getting more cats.”

Bucky hung his head dejectedly, chewing on his lip thoughtfully. “What about a rabbit?”

“We don’t have a garden.”

“A hamster.”

“The cats would kill it and you’d mourn.” Steve said flatly. “We don’t need more pets. You already spend most of our money on treats for them.”

“But we have all that money saved up for the wedding, and since Tony’s paying for that now we can use it for something else.”

“I already have plans for that money.”

Bucky frowned at him and Steve smirked, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him onto his lap. Humming quietly, Bucky slumped against him and looked up at him sternly.

“If your plans involve the words ‘art’ or ‘paints’ I swear to god-”

“I’m not gonna use our wedding funds to buy paint. I’m not that irresponsible.” Steve muttered, narrowing his eyes when Bucky scoffed at him. “You’re one to talk anyway. You spent all our grocery money on a cushion last week.”

“I told you I was gonna buy that. You consented to me buying the cushion.”

“Forgive me for assuming that this cushion would cost less than our entire food supply.”

“You should never assume that. Besides, you can’t deny that our decorative cushion display is now second to none.” Bucky said as he gestured to the couch.

“Bucky, we have so many cushions. People have to actually move the cushions off the couch to sit down. Why do you keep buying cushions?”

“We’re adults. Adults buy decorative cushions, I don’t fucking know.”

Steve chuckled, squeezing him tightly and nuzzling at his hair. “Can one of your wedding vows be to stop buying cushions?”

“That’s an impossible request. You can’t expect me to marry you and _not_ buy a wedding themed decorative cushion.” Bucky mumbled, nestling his head against Steve’s shoulder and sighing. “I looked online, but all the ones I found said ‘Mr and Mrs’ on them.”

“Ew.”

“Mm.” He hummed as he nuzzled Steve’s neck. “I could buy so many cushions with that money.”

“No.”

“Well what’re you gonna use it for?”

Shifting on the floor, Steve tilted Bucky’s chin up and bumping their noses together. “Still gotta book our honeymoon.”

“You mean our sex vacation?” Bucky smirked, giggling when Steve rolled his eyes.

“You really know how to suck the romance out of everything, huh?” He sighed as Bucky draped his arms around his neck, leaning forward and biting his lip playfully.

“I’ll suck the romance out of _you_.”

“Buck, I love you, but your attempts at flirting make me sad.”

Bucky stuck his bottom lip out indignantly, huffing and folding his arms. “I think I’m improving.”

“Anything is an improvement on your attempt at a candlelit dinner.” Steve mumbled.

“Why do you always bring that up? It wasn’t that bad.”

“You set the entire table on fire. I’m not sure how it could have gone worse.”

“I thought the candles would add romantic flair.”

Steve threw his head back laughing and Bucky hung his head in shame, glancing over at the empty space where their table once stood. The movies made romantic gestures look a lot easier.. and safer. In hindsight, it seemed obvious that combining cheap candles with a cheap wooden table would end badly, but hey, he still got marks for trying, right?

“You’re so cute.” Steve chuckled, bumping their noses together.

“I’m not.”

“You are cute. Too cute. It’s disgusting.”

Bucky scrunched his face up as Steve grabbed his cheeks, kissing all over him and sniggering when Bucky squirmed on his lap.

“Get off me, you jerk.” He giggled as he tried to shove Steve’s face away. “You’re so- stop it!”

Ignoring him, Steve continued kissing along his cheek, pressing a kiss to his lips and grinning at him. “Love you,” He murmured against his lips. “Love you so much.”

Bucky blushed, hanging his head and nuzzling at Steve’s shoulder. “Love you too.”

They’d been together for over six years now, but he still turned into a flustered mess whenever Steve showed any kind of affection towards him. He was still waiting for him to reveal that this had all actually been an elaborate joke, or that Steve was living some double life and had a wife and kids in another city. Locking his hands together, he felt for his ring and twisted it on his finger a few times, reassuring himself that Steve clearly cared enough to spend a stupid amount of money on a piece of jewellery for him. He still hadn’t managed to get Steve to admit just _how much_ he’d spent on the ring, but the look of shame on his face any time he brought it up told him it was a lot.

His train of thought was abruptly cut off by the sound of his stomach growling loudly, making Steve jump.

“I guess you need food, huh?” He chuckled, tilting Bucky’s chin up and smirking when he nodded. “Okay. Well, since I woke you up early, how about I go down to the bakery and get you something for breakfast.”

“Mm, that’d be nice.” Bucky hummed sleepily. “Can you get those chocolate croissants?”

Steve nodded, kissing Bucky’s nose and lifting him off his lap. He watched as Steve walked into the bedroom, reappearing after a couple of minutes in sweatpants and a t-shirt Bucky was fairly sure belonged to him. Or maybe it was Steve’s and he was the one who’d stolen it, at this point their closet had pretty much merged into one.

“Be back in a few.” Steve said cheerfully, petting Bucky’s hair as he walked past.

They’d done this enough times for Bucky to know exactly how long he could spend sitting on the floor before he had to get up and turn the coffee machine on. It was a good routine. Steve would go out and spend money they didn’t have on food they didn’t need, he would sit on his ass waiting for the coffee machine to do its thing, and then when Steve got back he’d act like Bucky was god’s greatest gift for pressing a button and pouring liquid into a cup.  
After a few minutes he got to his feet, pottering over to the kitchen and switching the machine on. Their kitchen was a strange hodgepodge of cheap, shitty appliances, and expensive ones they’d been given as gifts. The blender Steve bought a few months ago could barely even mash up a banana, and yet they had a coffee machine with fifty different settings. Why did they need a machine that could make fifty different variations of coffee? Neither of them knew. But apparently his dad thought it was necessary. Shaking his head to himself, he grabbed one of his mugs from the cabinet and began hunting around the apartment for Steve’s.  
Bucky had built up quite a collection of mugs over the years, most of them dinosaur themed. He wasn’t sure when that became a thing, but he seemed to have some unspoken agreement with Steve that any time they found a mug with a dinosaur on, they had to buy it. Steve on the other hand only had one mug, and despite all Bucky’s efforts to get him a new one he adamently refused to stop using it. He’d called Steve ‘daddy’ once. _Once_. But now the World’s Best Dad mug served as a constant, lasting reminder of his sins. He found the kinkshaming ceramic on the desk by the TV, pacing back over to the kitchen and setting it down on the counter without bothering to rinse it. If Steve wasn’t gonna wash this filthy piece of pottery then neither was he.

As expected, Steve came back through the door just as he was pouring the coffee out, rustling a paper bag and putting on an exaggerated French accent as he yelled “Croissants!” loudly across the room. Bucky rolled his eyes when he felt Steve slide his arm around his waist, kissing his cheek and looking down at the mugs in front of them.

“Did you wash my mug?” He asked as Bucky turned around.

“I did not. If you wanted me to wash it you should have put it in the sink.” He told him, biting back a laugh when Steve folded his arms indignantly. “You’ll just have to drink your dirty coffee out of your dirty mug like the piece of shit you are.”

“Remind me again why I decided to marry you?”

“I don’t know.” Bucky shrugged as he picked the mugs up, pushing past him and heading back towards the bedroom. “But I’m glad you did.”

He could hear Steve chuckling behind him, following him into the bedroom and sitting down on the bed. As soon as Bucky had set the mugs down on the nightstand Steve grabbed him, pulling him backwars onto the bed.

“Stop doing that!” He yelled, slapping Steve’s arm lightly. “I’m fragile.”

Steve grinned at him, squeezing his waist affectionately before thrusting the paper bag in his face and shaking it. “Will food make you feel better?”

“Gimme.”

They both shuffled along the bed, sitting up against the headboard with their shoulders pressed together. Bucky wriggled impatiently as Steve pulled one of the croissants out of the bag and handed it to him. He examined it carefully, assessing the length of it before whispering softly, “I bet I could fit this whole thing in my mouth.”

Looking up from the croissant he was nibbling on, Steve frowned at him and shook his head. “You’re gonna choke.”

“Steve, you and I both know it takes a lot more than this to make me choke.” He smirked, tilting it on it’s side and looking it up and down. “I could totally do it. It’s not that big.”

“I’m not gonna sit here and watch you deepthroat a croissant.” Steve muttered as he leant over him, grabbing his coffee from the nightstand and turning away from him in disgust.

Bucky paid no notice to him and began sliding the pastry into his mouth, just about managing to stop himself from choking as he took the whole thing in. He threw his arms up victoriously, letting out a muffled cheer and slapping Steve’s shoulder repeatedly until he looked up.

“You’re disgusting.” Steve sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “This is why I rarely take you out to dinner.”

Spitting the croissant out before he could choke on it, Bucky giggled and wiped the corner of his mouth. “That’s gonna be my party trick at our reception.”

“I will divorce you immediately.”

“Stevie, the minute everyone sees that I’ll become the most desirable man in the room. I’ll soon find a replacement for you.”

“I’m pretty sure what you consider desirable and what the rest of the human race consider desirable are two very different things.” He chuckled, leaning his head on Bucky’s shoulder and looking up at him.

“Is that why you were forced to settle for me instead of moving on to bigger and better things?”

“I’m not.. you shut your mouth.” Steve scolded. “I’m not settling for you.”

Bucky rolled his eyes at him, taking a bite of his pastry and snuggling up to him. “I know. I’m practically the peak of human perfection, so I’m kinda hard to top.”

“I don’t know, I think you’re pretty easy to top.” Steve shrugged. “You’re very submissive.”

“Slut.”

“You started it.”

“Can I eat my breakfast in peace?” He tutted, shoving his shoulder and turning his attention back to his croissant.

Steve ignored him and immediately shuffled back over to him, leaning his head against Bucky’s. “Why don’t you look at me as lovingly as you look at that pastry?”

“You’re not filled with chocolate.”

“That’s fair.”

Bucky chuckled, wrapping his arm around Steve’s shoulders and holding him close as he devoured the rest of the croissant.

“In your defence.” He said with his mouth full. “You also go well with chocolate.”

“Please don’t bring that up.” Steve grumbled, frowning at him when Bucky swung his leg over him and perched himself in his lap. “That night was a mistake and you know it.”

“You liked it.” Bucky purred as he draped his arms around Steve’s neck, rolling his hips teasingly and giggling when he narrowed his eyes at him. “I thought it was fun.”

“You didn’t have to spend three hours in the shower trying to get chocolate sauce our of your chest hair.”

“Hmm.” He hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe I should have waxed you first.”

“Oh yeah that would’a _really_ amped up the romance.” Steve said flatly. “Pain and stickyness. What a great night that would be.”

“Okay I know you’re being sarcastic but that does sound like a good night to me.”

Steve cocked his eyebrow at him, shaking his head as he slid his arms around Bucky’s waist. “You’re too much for me.”

“That’s what you get for dating a slut in college.” Bucky smirked, leaning in towards him and chewing on his lip.

“Can you stop trying to seduce me and just finish your coffee? We have places to be today.”

“We’re not meeting her for another two hours.”

“Oh.. really?”

Bucky nodded and Steve hummed thoughtfully, running his thumbs over Bucky’s hips before grabbing him and flipping him onto his back. Yelping, Bucky slapped his shoulder, giggling as he let his head fall back onto the mattress.

“Don’t do that. I’m old, I have a bad back.”

“You’re 29, Buck.” Steve smirked as he shifted his weight on top of him.

“I’m practically dead.”

Rolling his eyes, Steve dipped his head and started kissing along his neck. As he moved further down, Bucky glanced over at his untouched mug of coffee on the nightstand, and quickly accepted that he would probably have to make a fresh cup.

♥

They’d arranged to meet their wedding planner at a café a few blocks away from their apartment. They were _supposed_ to be meeting her at 9, but they were now running thirty minutes late, and it was entirely Steve’s fault. Sure Bucky was the one who took too long in the shower, decided he was going to make himself another cup of coffee, and then spent an excessive amount of time deciding which pair of black jeans he wanted to wear, but it was Steve who almost forgot his phone and delayed their leaving time by almost 20 seconds, so it was his fault. He could hear him grumbling to himself as they walked. Well, Steve was walking, but he was going so fast Bucky practically had to jog to keep up with him.

“Can you slow down?” He panted as they turned the corner. “I only have little legs.”

Steve responded by sighing dramatically, grabbing his hand and pulling him along faster. “Okay first of all,” He said as they weaved in and out of the crowds of people on the sidewalk, “You don’t have little legs, you’re just slow. You’re like, 70% leg. You’re like a fucking gazelle.”

He decided to ignore the harsh tone in Steve’s voice and take that as a compliment, holding his head high while he carried on talking.

“Second, it’s only because of _you_ that we’re having to go so fast in the first place.”

“That is.. I’m not.. I never.. how _dare_ you.”

“Hopefully she hasn’t walked out on us.” Steve said, ignoring him. “She’s a wedding planner. She’s gotta have a lot of patience for a job like that, right? What did you say her name was?”

“Sharon. Her mom’s worked with Tony a few times. Apparently I met her when I was, like, two.”

“Is she nice?”

“I don’t know, Steve. I was two.”

Steve sighed deeply, as if it were somehow his fault he hadn’t conducted a full personality test on a woman he met as a toddler. Bucky had discovered fairly early on that Steve was incredibly easily aggrivated. Not many days went by where he didn’t find _something_ to be angry about. Fortunately, he was rarely angry at him; most of the time he’d just find him yelling at the toaster or some other inanimate object. At one point he started keeping a list of everything Steve swore at every day, but he stopped after Steve retaliated by making a list of reasons he’d cried every day. Now that he thought about it, planning a wedding was probably the worst idea ever.

It was too late for him to back out as Steve dragged him through the doors of the café. He realised too late that neither of them had a clue what Sharon actually looked like, and they both stood awkwardly in the doorway for a few moments until a blonde woman bounced over to them, beaming and pulling them both into a hug.

“James!”

“It’s Bucky.” He and Steve said simultaniously..

“Okay, _Bucky_.” She smirked, guiding them both across the room. “I have a table over by the back.”

The minute they sat down Bucky leant across the table, looking Sharon in the eye as he spoke. “Before we do anything else I need to get something out of the way.”

“O.. Kay?”

“We’re gay men.”

“Well technically we’re not-” Steve started, narrowing his eyes when Bucky pressed a finger to his lips to shut him up.

“There is no bride at this wedding.” He continued. “So what the hell am I supposed to call my bridesmaids?”

Sharon giggled, glancing over at Steve for a moment before turning back to him and shrugging. “They’re usually just called honour attendants.”

“Oh. That’s boring.” Bucky mumbled, slumping back in his seat miserably. “I’d rather just call them bridesmaids.”

“You go ahead.” She smirked, setting a folder down on the table and scribbling a few things on the first page.

“You’ll make a beautiful bride.” Steve whispered just loud enough for him to hear, making him laugh loud enough for _everyone_ to hear.

“You’re a jerk.”

“For calling you beautiful?”

“Yes.. no.. you’re just.. a jerk in general.”

“So, wedding venues.” Sharon interrupted as she thrust the folder in front of them. “These are some of the local venues I usually book at, unless you already have somewhere in mind?”

“Honestly, we only started seriously discussing this whole thing about three hours ago.” Bucky admitted. “Our family all live in New York City though, so somewhere closer to there would be easier.”

“That should be fine. Do you guys want a chapel wedding or just-”

“No.” They said in unison, glancing over at each other and sniggering when Sharon raised her eyebrow.

“Okay.. did you already talk about that or do you just have a lot in common.”

“Neither.” Steve said bluntly, shrugging when Bucky narrowed his eyes at him. “You once threatened to kill me because you found out I like pineapple on pizza.”

“Pineapple is a dessert food.” Bucky muttered as he turned back to Sharon. “We’re not having a chapel wedding. I already have to stand at an alter in front of everybody I know, I don’t need God watching me too.”

“Alright then.” Sharon said, clicking her pen and scribbling more notes down. “No chapel.”

Thirty minutes into the conversation, Bucky discovered that planning a wedding wasn’t quite as much fun as he’d expected. In fact, it was boring as shit.

It was possible that what he had mistaken for excitement at wedding planning, was actually excitement at choosing a wedding cake, or, more specifically, excitement at tasting several other cakes before choosing the right one. Unfortunately Sharon insisted that was one of their last priorities, so he was going to have to settle for regular cake for another few months. _Fortunately_ she also insisted that right now she had most of the work, and she bid them goodbye with the promise that until she phoned them with confirmations of dates and venues, they didn’t have to do anything.

“Well, that sucked.” Bucky said cheerfully as got back to their apartment, smirking when Steve rolled his eyes. “What? Are you gonna try and convince me that _wasn’t_ boring?”

“Bucky you work a desk job, aren’t you used to boredom by now?”

“Just because I’m used to it doesn’t mean I enjoy it.”

Sighing, Steve wrapped his arms around him and kissed the top of his head. “I’m sorry that committing your life to me is so boring.”

“I’m not committing my life to you yet, that’s the problem. I want to get married right now but instead we have to plan everything.” He sighed, leaning his head against Steve’s chest. “It’s gonna take ages.”

“Sweetheart, if you didn’t care about planning everything you should have just said and we could’a-”

“But I _do_ care because I also want everything to be extravagent and perfect. I want people to leave, crushed by the reality that nothing they ever do will live up to how perfectly amazing and beautiful our wedding was.”

He could feel Steve shaking as he laughed, nuzzling his hair affectionately. “This is gonna be fun.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.” He mumbled against Bucky’s forehead. “At least Sharon’s nice.”

“You mean nice like you’d invite her to a family dinner, or nice like you’d ruin the sanctity of marriage and destroy both our lives?”  

“Gonna go with the first one.”

“Good.” He said quietly, snuggling closer to him. “Love you.”

“Love you too.” Steve whispered, squeezing him tightly and kissing his forehead. “We gonna stand on the doormat hugging for the rest of the day?”

Bucky nodded, wrapping his arms around Steve’s waist and nuzzling his chest. “I’m working early tomorrow, and you’re working late. We gotta fit two days worth of hugs into one afternoon.”

“I can still phone-hug you tomorrow.”

“It’s not the same and you know it. Stop trying to make that a thing.” He grumbled, yelping as Steve grabbed his thighs and lifted him up.

“How long have we known each other?” Steve asked as he carried him across the room. “But you’re _still_ caught off guard when I pick you up.”

“We’ve known each other for 7 years and 7 months, and _you_ still haven’t accepted that I need a seconds warning before you pick me up.”

 Steve shrugged, flopping back onto the couch and wrapping his arms around Bucky’s waist. “Whatever, I’m gonna sleep for the rest of the day.” He mumbled as he slid back, resting his head against the arm of the couch.

“Nuh uh. You promised to cook me dinner tonight.” Bucky reminded him, nestling against his chest and smirking up at him. “Which means I get to sleep while you slave away in the kitchen.”

“When did I promise to cook you dinner?”

“Two days ago. We went to Sam’s and you drank like, three bottles of wine between you, then we got home, I got halfway through sucking your dick and you looked me in the eye, told me I was the most beautiful creature on the face of the earth and that you were gonna cook me a banquet on Sunday to prove your undying affection for me, then passed out.”

Steve nodded thoughtfully for a moment. “Why did I choose Sunday?”

“I don’t know, but you were very specific.”

“I don’t even think we have any food in the house.”

“That’s not my problem.” He shrugged. “I will accept takeout.”

“Noooooo I promised.. I _apparently_ promised you a banquet. You’re getting a damn banquet.”

Bucky whined when Steve wriggling out from underneath him and stood up, pacing over to the kitchen and ignoring his loud protesting.

“It’s not even lunchtime yet. Get back over here and love me.” He moaned, kicking his legs out grumpily.

His whining did eventually get him some attention, not Steve’s, but attention nonetheless. Meg hopped up onto the couch next to him, brushing up against his arm as Opi clambered up behind him.

“You’re getting stronger, Opes.” He said when she finally made it, rolling onto his back and scooping the kitten up. “You’re so pretty. I love you so much.”

“Love you too.” Steve called from the kitchen.

“I’m not talking to _you_.” Bucky snapped. “Leave me and my princess alone.”

“She’s technically my ca-”

“ _My princess.”_  He hissed, kissing Opi’s nose. The kitten let out a tiny mew in response and Bucky’s throat made a noise that was somewhere between a scream and a sob.

“Did you hear her, Stevie? Did you hear her meow? She’s so tiny. Steve she’s so tiny and I love her.”

“If you start crying over the fucking kitten _again_ I swear to god..” Steve muttered as he paced back over, crouching down by the couch and stroking the top of Opi’s head.

“Our children are beautiful” Bucky whispered, watching the kitten fall asleep on top of him. “Let’s have another.”

“No.”

“I won’t be satisfied with this relationship until we’re outnumbered by cats.”

Steve rolled his eyes at him, but Bucky could see the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile. “Well,” He sighed, cocking his head. “I came back over here so I could love you, but I see I’ve already been replaced.”

“No! I still wanna be loved.” Bucky cried, grabbing Steve by the arm when he went to get up. He tried to wriggle across the couch to make some room, but all he really succeeded in doing was scaring Opi away and creating approximately one inch of space for Steve to lie in.

Despite this, he still patted the space invitingly, laughing when Steve scooped him up and sat on the couch with him in his arms.

“I hate that you can do that.” Bucky mumbled, curling up on his lap and nestling his head on Steve’s shoulder. “There’s an imbalance of power here.”

“You don’t know that. You’ve never actually _tried_ to lift me up.”

“Steve, I struggle to open some doors, do you really think I’m gonna attempt to lift a grown man?”

Smirking, Steve leant back and closed his eyes, humming thoughtfully.

“What if..” He said slowly, “What if the building caught fire, and I was unconcious-”

“I’d save the cats and leave you for dead.”

“Thanks, Buck. Always nice to be appreciated.”

They spent the majority of the day not moving from the couch, watching crappy daytime tv and arguing over whether or not Bucky should quit his job and work as a cat whisperer. Bucky insisted he could make a profitable career out of it, but Steve didn’t seem entirely convinced.

♥

Despite the compelling arguments he’d made the night before, Bucky still ended up returning to his desk at the precinct the following day. Maybe one day his mornings would be filled with cats, but for now he’d have to deal with grim reality, which was currently manifesting itself in the form of a stack of unfiled police reports. He’d been staring at the pile for a good seventeen minutes now, willing them to magically sort themselves. If Hogwarts had _just_ sent him that acceptance letter this problem would be over in seconds.

Groaning, he finally forced himself to his feet, scooping up the mass of papers and trudging across the room.

“Hey, Barnes! Hold up.” A voice behind him called, stopping him in his tracks just before he reached the door.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Ororo hurrying over to him with another file in her hand, giving him a half-hearted shrug when he groaned again.

“Sorry. Just finished it up this morning.”

Sighing, Bucky leant forward so she could delicately balance the file on top of the already precarious pile he was holding.

“Wish you guys weren’t so good at your damn jobs.” He muttered, trying and failing to push the door handle down with his elbow.

Ororo watched him struggle for a few moments before nudging him out of the way, pushing the door open and following him inside. “So,” She said as she leant against the wall, “You guys set a date for the wedding yet?”

“We’re getting there.” Bucky mumbled absently, sifting through the papers. “Gonna be sometime in September.”

“September’s good. Go for the 17th. Shouldn’t rain that day.”

“Ororo, it’s five months away. I’m pretty sure God himself doesn’t know the forecast that far ahead.”

Smirking, she ran her hand through the white mop of hair on her head. “Have I ever been wrong though?”

“No, and I hate it. I’m gonna call the fucking paranormal investigators on you.”

“What can I say?” She shrugged. “I’m chosen.”

Bucky scoffed, pulling open one of the cabinets and dumping a handful of files inside. “Don’t you have work to do?” He asked as he moved on to the next cabinet.

“Nah. Rhodes is interrogating a guy we brought in last night, so I’m just waiting for him to ask-”

“Munroe!” A voice yelled from outside, as if on cue. “I need you to be bad cop!”

“There we go.” She sighed. “Enjoy your filing!”

She was out the door before Bucky could say something sarcastic in response so he did what any mature adult would do. He stuck his tongue out at the closed door. Once he was satisfied his point had been made he returned, maturely, to the job which he, an adult, had been employed to carry out.

Halfway through filing the remaining reports he remembered there were security cameras in the room, and had to spend the following ten minutes convincing himself that the risks of hacking into the police security system and deleting 5 seconds of footage greatly outweighed the benefits. His phone buzzing in his pocket provided a welcome distraction and he quickly dropped the files he was holding to grab it.

**Steve ❤**

_I missed you leaving_

Bucky rolled his eyes, thinking back to the last time he’d woken Steve up and almost been killed as a result as he typed out a response.

_I value my life more than I value goodbye hugs._

He stared at his phone for a few seconds, rereading Steve’s message before adding

_Have you just woken up??_

He managed to get a few more reports put away before his phone buzzed again, and two more messages flashed up on his screen.

**Steve** ❤ **  
**_I expect extra goodnight hugs to make up for this travesty_

_technically I woke up two hours ago.._

_but I went back to sleep_

**Bucky  
** _You have work in forty minutes._

**Steve** ❤ **  
**_I can get ready in ten_

**Bucky  
** _You’re still in bed._

**Steve** ❤ **  
**_you can’t prove that.._

**Bucky  
** _Get out of bed you shitbag_

_I’m changing your contact name to shitbag for the foreseeable future._

**Shitbag** ❤  
_uncalled for_

**Bucky  
** _I’ll consider changing it again when I know you’re at work._

_Now get off your ass._

_Btw Ororo thinks we should have our wedding on the 17 th and I trust her judgement. _ _J_

**Shitbag** ❤  
_sounds good! I’ll text Sharon_ _J_

_love you xx_

**Bucky  
** _Since when do you have Sharon’s number??_

After waiting a few minutes for Steve to respond, Bucky decided he must have left to get ready for work, so he shoved his phone back into his pocket and went back to filing, letting his mind drift to thoughts of wedding cake.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For context because I can't remember if it's ever explicitly mentioned, this chapter starts about a month on from the last, and there will be similar time jumps between all the following chapters too :)

Memories were all he had now. Memories of the sun shining just behind the clouds, of the breeze on his face, the smell of cut grass. But those were all things of the past. How he missed the outside world.

They’d been walking around the Ikea store for almost 50 minutes now. Bucky was certain they’d walked past the same Liatorp three times now, but they still hadn’t been able to locate the tables.

“Should’ve followed the arrows like I said.” He muttered as he side eyed Steve, who had been determined not to make eye contact with him for the past 5 minutes.

“I _told you_ I know a shortcut.” Steve said flatly, pushing the shopping cart forward obnoxiously. Before this moment Bucky didn’t even know it was possible to push a cart obnoxiously, but Steve had always been full of surprises.

“We’ve been going round in circles for half an hour. Look, that’s the Songe we were looking at earlier.”

“You can just say mirror, Bucky. You can just. Say. Mirror.”

Ignoring him, Bucky grabbed the side of the cart and pulled it in a different direction. “There’s a floorplan over here, we can figure out where the tables are.”

“We’re in a furniture store. We don’t need to use a map.”

“If we’re in here much longer I _will_ go feral. Do you really want to unleash a feral gay on all these innocent, middle aged white people?”

Steve didn’t say anything, but his grip on the cart loosened _just enough_ for Bucky to steer it easier.

“They’re upstairs.” He said in disbelief, his eyes flicking back and forth between the map and Steve. “They’re fucking upstairs, Steve. We’ve been walking around this floor for thirty seven minutes and the tables are _upstairs._ This is divorce material, I hope you realise that.”

“We’re not married yet.” Steve mumbled, turning to walk away and grunting when Bucky yanked his arm back.

“No.” He muttered coldly, stretching up onto his tiptoes and staring Steve in the eyes. “But I’m gonna remember this moment. I’m gonna smile through the whole wedding ceremony, go on a beautiful honeymoon with you, adopt four children and seven more cats. We’ll be happy together. But then one morning you’ll wake up to find me gone, and when our kids ask why daddy left, you’ll have to tell them it was because _you_ couldn’t find the _fucking tables_.”

Steve narrowed his eyes at him, chewing on his lip for a second before grumbling, “There is no way I’m adopting four children.” And pushing the cart towards the stairs stubbornly.

For a few seconds Bucky just stood there with his arms folded, waiting for Steve to check if he was following. It wasn’t until Steve was halfway up the stairs that he accepted defeat and hurriedly followed behind him.

“Do you know which one we’re looking for?” Steve asked, ignoring the minor heart attack Bucky was suffering after running up a flight of stairs.

“Yeah.. it’s.. I think it’s that one..” He panted as he pointed to one of the tables.

“Do you need a medic?”

Bucky scowled at him and marched purposefully across the room, making direct eye contact with him as he ran his hand over the table. He wasn’t entirely sure what point he was making to Steve by doing this, but the look of mild discomfort on his face only encouraged him.

“Stop that.” Steve muttered when he got to him. “You’re gonna get hotdog grease on it.”

“My hands do not have hotdog grease on them.”

“I fail to see how that’s possible. You ate three.”

“They had a deal on, Steve. It was more economical.”

“Whatever.” Steve sighed, dragging his hand down his face. “I’m not gonna argue with you about hotdogs.”

“You’re the one that brought it up.” Bucky grumbled bitterly. “Are we getting the Danhult or what?”

“It’s _just.._ ” Bucky couldn’t help but smile to himself as he watched Steve fight to stop himself from yelling in the middle of the store. “It’s just a table, Bucky.”

“They’re all tables. If I didn’t say their names you wouldn’t know what I was talking about.”

“Because calling it a dunlop really makes it clearer for me.”

“Danhult.”

“Fuck you.” Steve muttered, turning away from him. “I like this one better.”

“That one’s more expensive.”

“It’s $37.”

“The Danhult is $35.”

“You want to buy a crappier looking table for the sake of saving $2?”

Bucky nodded, folding his arms stubbornly. “We need to save some money for the wedding.”

Cocking his eyebrow, Steve pulled the cart over and gestured into it. “Since we arrived you have picked up three decorative vases, a large cuddly crocodile, a wooden horse, and a potted cactus.”

“The vases are for the kitchen because there’s a space on the counter that’s been bugging me, it’s an alligator not a crocodile, and you keep saying we should have a plant in the house.”

“What about the horse?”

“I just think it’s nice.”

“Right. So rather than buying a nicer table for an extra $2, you are going to buy a cheaper table and a $5 wooden horse?”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do. It’s my work bonus I can buy what I want. Talk to me when you start bringing in more than minimum wage.” Bucky snapped, turning his back on him and scribbling down the table details.

“Didn’t have to go there.” Steve mumbled after a while, following behind him as he marched towards the next flight of stairs.

“I did have to go there.” Bucky said as he whipped his head around. “Otherwise you would’a kept on arguing with me about what _I_ can do with _my_ money because you always have to argue with me about everything and it drives me insane and the only way I can get you to shut the fuck up is to bring up your shitty job so maybe next time-“

“Bucky calm down.”

“I am completely calm!” Bucky yelled, un-calmly. “I think _you_ are the one that needs to calm down.”

“Buck-“

“I think you need to take that fucking Lerhamn that you love so much, and shove it up your ass! And _furthermore-“_

“Buck I’m sorry!” Steve interrupted, grabbing his shoulders. “Now can you stop swearing in the middle of Ikea?”

“Fine.” Bucky muttered as he wrenched himself out of Steve’s hands.

Neither of them spoke as they made their way around the rest of the store, and Bucky refused to make eye contact even when Steve told him he was going to find a bathroom, leaving him to pay for everything on his own.

“Fucking lucky to have me.” He grumbled to himself as he loaded the box into the back of the car by himself. “I’m prime fucking husband material.”

“Are you talking to yourself in the car park now?” Steve asked from behind him, making Bucky jump.

“What took you so long?”

“I got you some mini cinnamon rolls.” He said, holding up a bag and smirking at him. “You can’t yell at me if you’re eating.”

Bucky looked down at his feet for a second, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets and scuffing his shoe against the ground. “’M sorry I yelled at you.”

“It’s okay.”

“And I’m sorry I told you to shove a table up your ass.”

“You mean a Lerhamn?”

He tried to stop himself from laughing but ended up snorting instead, which made Steve laugh too.

“You’re such a jerk.” Bucky sighed, shuffling over to him and leaning his head against his chest. “This place makes me so angry.”

“I know it does. I told you I should’a come on my own.”

“I mean what kind of furniture store has a restaurant in the middle? Nothing about this place makes sense.”

“I know, baby, it’s okay.” Steve whispered as he wrapped his arms around him, kissing the top of his head and squeezing him tightly. “At least this time you shouted at me instead of getting into a full argument with a wardrobe. You’re gonna end up being banned from this place, you know.”

“I hope so, this place is stupid.”

“Buck you’re gonna work yourself up again. You need to let it go.”

“There’s a kids play area, Steve. It’s a furniture store. Why is there an entire kids play area? I’m gonna key one of the employee’s cars.”

“Get in the car and eat your cinnamon rolls, sweetheart.” Steve chuckled, squeezing Bucky’s shoulders and guiding him towards the car door.

The majority of the car ride home was silent, aside from the quiet munching noises as Bucky made his way through the cinnamon rolls at a disgusting pace. It wasn’t until he started to feel sick that he finally put the bag down, by which point they were almost home anyway.

“Stevie.” Bucky said as they pulled up to their apartment block. “To make up for the abuse I hurled at you I’m gonna assemble the table by myself. You can take a nap or something.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I think it would be less stressful for everyone involved if you let _me_ build the table while you nap. I still remember the closet incident.”

Bucky frowned, nodding solemnly. “I cried a lot that day.”

“7 times.”

“Well one of those times was entirely your fault.”

“I was never gonna have sex with you in a partially assembled piece of furniture, Bucky. I don’t know why you even asked.”

“Because it would have been _funny_ .” He said as they got out of the car. “Two men having sex in a half assembled closet would have been comedy _gold_ and you denied me that.”

Steve chuckled, shaking his head to himself as he lifted the box out of the back of the car and carrying it inside, with Bucky following along behind him. It was frankly disgusting how Steve’s shirt strained around the muscles of his arms as he carried the table up the stairs. He’d be angry about it if it weren’t for the fact that he was going to marry those arms, along with the rest of his body, in a few months.   
Meg and Opi started mewing the second they got through the door, scurrying over and pawing at Bucky’s legs.

“Hey babies!” He cooed, bending down to scoop them into his arms. “Say hi to the babies, Stevie.”

“Megatron and I aren’t on speaking terms yet. I’m still mad at him for scratching me.” Steve muttered as he came over to stroke Opi.

“It wasn’t his fault! He thought you were attacking me.”

“Well he’s officially banned from the bedroom from now on.”

Sniggering, Bucky leant his head against Steve’s shoulder. “Did you wash your superman pyjamas yet?”

“Yeah, they’re in the drier.”

“Good, I’m stealing them.” He told him, thrusting the cats into Steve’s arms and walking across the room to get them.

In the end, Bucky was glad Steve refused his offer to build the table. It was much less stressful sitting on the floor with a cat in his lap, occasionally offering moral support whenever Steve started swearing at some wood. But, after 40 minutes, they had a table, and Steve had taken a place of the cat on Bucky’s lap.

“You know what I’ve taken from this whole experience?” Bucky murmured, carding his fingers through Steve’s hair.

“Hmm?”

“I bought this table because I’m the main income earner right now, so like.. gender role wise that would make me the man in the relationship. But then you _built_ the table.. which would also make _you_ the man in the relationship. We’re breaking gender boundaries here.”

“I think we broke those pretty early in our relationship by being two men.”

“Yeah but you know what I mean.”

“Not really.” Steve said, grunting as he rolled onto his back and looked up at him. “Why do you think one of us has to be the man?”

“I don’t. But some guy at work yesterday saw the photo of us on my desk and asked if I was the guy or the girl and I didn’t know how to answer.”

“That’s homophobia, Buck.”

“I think he was just trying to make conversation.”

“Bucky we’ve talked about this. You need to start reporting this stuff.”

“We’ve also established that your idea of homophobia is different to mine.”

“I know that.” Steve sighed, reaching over to hold Bucky’s hand. “But it doesn’t mean you should put up with the minor things either.”

Shrugging, Bucky leant back, linking their fingers together and squeezing his hand. “I’ve got you. None of that stuff bothers me anymore.”

“That’s.. That’s adorable. That’s really sweet I’m not gonna argue with you anymore.”

“Thank you.” Bucky said smugly. “Now on a more important note, I’m hungry. Can we order pizza?”

“Sure.”

♥

It had been a little over a month since they’d first talked to Sharon about the wedding, and since then they’d heard relatively little from her. She’d sent them links to several different venues in the area in the past couple of weeks but so far Bucky had rejected all of them. Initially he’d thought himself to be fairly laid back about this whole thing, but now that he was starting to look at real, specific details he’d discovered that he actually cared a lot, and now had a firm idea of exactly how he wanted everything. Fortunately, Steve really _was_ laid back about it and didn’t seem to mind leaving most of the final decision making to him.

He’d just got back from work when Steve told him Sharon had sent him a link to another potential venue.

“I did email it to you.” He said as Bucky sat down. “I haven’t looked at it yet, thought I’d wait to see what you thought first.”

“Why does she send all this stuff to you? She has both of our details.” Bucky mumbled to himself, reaching for his laptop to check his emails.

“We live together. Why would she bother sending us both the same thing?”

Ignoring him, Bucky scrolled through his messages and cringed when he saw the “wedding venue?” message from bisexualamericano@hotmail.com.

“You really need to get a professional email address, Stevie.”

“I have a professional email. I just don’t email you with it.” Steve said defensively, getting up from the couch. “I have a bunch of commissions to work on. Call me over if this place is any good.”

Nodding, Bucky opened the page up and started scrolling through the pictures. It was a hotel, about half an hour from them, and he only had to look at the very first picture to know that he loved it. There were indoor and outdoor areas, with a huge seating area and a wedding isle set up with candles and tall flower displays. He ended up spending ages searching for more photos of the hotel and vividly playing out the entire ceremony in his head before he finally decided to scroll further down to see the prices. Inhaling a sharp breath, he set his laptop down gently next to him and crept over to where Steve was sat at his desk.

“Hey, baby.” He cooed, wrapping his arms around Steve’s shoulders and leaning forward to kiss his cheek.

“You like it, huh?”

“How do you know that?”

“You’ve been making happy noises for the past ten minutes.” Steve chuckled, setting his pencil down and spinning around on his chair to face him. “You usually only make those noises when you’re eating pizza, so it must be _really_ good.”

“It’s so pretty, Stevie. It’s got these big flower displays and you can see the ocean through the windows and they have these _huge_ hotel rooms that we can stay in and I love it so much please love it too.”

“Why wouldn’t I love it? It sounds great.”

“Well yeah but there’s this _teensy_ detail that I’m worried you won’t like.”

Steve cocked his eyebrow at him and Bucky sighed. “It’s really expensive.”

“That’s okay, Tony’s covering the costs.”

“I know but I mean it’s.. really expensive and I know you’re gonna feel guilty about it.”

“How much?”

“35.”

“Hundred?”

“Thousand, and that’s the minimum.”

Steve made an involuntary noise that was somewhere between a gasp, a scream, and an orgasm.

“OoOokay.” He said eventually, his voice several octaves higher than usual. “And you.. really love it?”

“I do.” Bucky said solemnly. “But if you don’t like it..”

“Lemme take a look.” Steve chuckled as he got to his feet.

“Okay. Don’t let this sway your decision but I _will_ leave you if you don’t agree to at least go and look around the place.”  

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

He watched nervously as Steve scrolled through the venue pictures, twiddling his thumbs impatiently. Steve, on the other hand, maintained a perfect poker face the entire time, giving nothing away to him.

“Okay.” He said after an eternity, closing the laptop and putting it aside. “I’ll call Sharon and see if we can go take a look at it.”

Letting go of any sense of pride he had left, Bucky squealed loudly, flinging himself at Steve and pinning him down on the couch.

“You like it?” He asked excitedly, beaming down at him when Steve nodded. “This is gonna be perfect. I’m so excited. I love you so much this was such a great idea.”

“So you want me to call her?”

“Not yet. I wanna cuddle you first.”

“I can do both of those things at the same time.” Steve said, wrapping one arm around Bucky’s waist and reaching over to grab his phone with the other.

Shrugging, Bucky re positioned himself on top of Steve, nestling his head against his shoulder and listening to him talking on the phone.

♥

Bucky had been buzzing with excitement since he woke up. In fact, he’d been excited all week. Apparently the hotel was popular, and the only time Sharon was able to arrange for them to look around was Sunday, meaning Bucky had been left to spend the entire week staring at photos and waiting for time to pass.   
Since waking up, Bucky had eaten breakfast three times, despite Steve’s comments about how he shouldn’t eat just because he’s bored, and had now spent the past half an hour sprawled across Steve’s lap and staring at the ceiling.

“Why don’t you read your book or something?” Steve asked, carding his fingers through Bucky’s hair.

“I already finished it yesterday.”  

“You bought 10 new books on Wednesday.”

“I don’t wanna read those.”

“Then why did you buy them?”

“I do _want_ to read them, just not _now_.” He groaned, tilting his head back and sighing deeply. “Can we just have sex or something.”

“I’m not having sex with you because you’re bored.” Steve said flatly, refusing to look over at him no matter how hard he pouted.

“That’s really rude. I look good today and you’re missing out.”

“You look good every day.”

“That’s not.. that’s not the _point,_ Steve. Stop being cute when I’m trying to make an argument.”

“Stop trying to start an argument just because you’re bored.” Steve argued. “Will you be quiet for the next twenty minutes if I promise to buy you lunch when we’re out?”

“Fine. But I’m going to Clint’s this afternoon so it’ll have to be quick.”

“Bucky,” Steve said slowly. “Why did you not go to see him _this morning_ instead of lying here complaining that you had nothing to do.”

Pausing, Bucky chewed on his lip thoughtfully for a second before rolling onto his side and avoiding Steve’s eyes.

Another half hour passed and finally it was time for them to leave. Sharon was waiting by the doors to the hotel when they arrived, waving excitedly when she saw them and tottering over.

“Okay!” She said before either of them had a chance to say hello. “No pressure, but if you both like the place, we’re gonna need to book it today, otherwise you might have to postpone the wedding for another month or two. Turns out it’s _really_ popular.”

They both glanced at each other for a second before following Sharon inside.

“So this is the reception, obviously,” Sharon said as she lead them across the room. “But the actual ceremony will be in here.”

Bucky let out an involuntary gasp when they walked through the door, grabbing Steve’s hand squeezing it tightly. The room was bigger than he expected, with cream and gold walls and flowers everywhere. At the back of the room, lace curtains were draped to form an archway, with a thin white carpet leading up to it.

“Bucky.”

Steve’s voice broke through the happy daze he was stuck in, and he blinked up at him blankly.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been staring into space for five minutes and I can’t gauge whether that’s a positive reaction or not.”

“It’s positive! It’s so positive! I love it so much, Stevie, please say you also love it because otherwise I’ll probably cry but I’ll also probably cry if you do love it because it’s perfect and I love you.”

“I love you too.” Steve chuckled, squeezing his hand and looking around the room. “It’s really pretty.”

“So you like it?”

“Buck, we’ve been over this. I’d be happy having a wedding in a barn, anything more than that is just a bonus.”

“Right.. so you like it?”

“Yeah I like it.” He grinned, laughing when Bucky threw his arms around him.

“This is gonna be the best day ever.” Bucky said excitedly, pressing his face into Steve’s shoulder.

“Guys.. this is only the first room.” Sharon smirked. “Do you wanna see the rest or-”

“Yes!” They both said in unison, linking arms as Sharon lead them back through the door.

Bucky fell more in love with the place as they walked around, but the tour took longer than he’d anticipated. By the time they’d seen the dining area, the hotel rooms, and the outdoor area, it was almost time for Bucky to get to Clint’s.

“Do you mind sorting the booking stuff out on your own?” He asked when they got back to the reception. “I have to go and secure a best man.”

“I’m more worried about how I’m gonna get home after.” Steve chuckled. “And how I’m supposed to buy the lunch I promised you.”

“I can drive you back.” Sharon piped up from behind them.

“And you can buy me dinner instead.” Bucky grinned, reaching up to kiss his cheek. “Don’t mess anything up. I have complete confidence in you, but don’t mess it up.” He called as he walked to where they’d parked the car.

He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d put off actually _asking_ Clint to be his best man for so long. Nat had accepted the offer of being a bridesmaid before he’d even asked her, and considering his notable lack of close friends, Clint had probably already accepted his role too. Yet so far it had just never seemed to come up in conversation, and now that they were really, actually planning this wedding, he felt compelled to make sure that Clint was actually on board.   
He and Nat had moved to an apartment 20 minutes away from his almost four years ago now. Clint still maintained that the move was entirely down to Nat being offered a job in New York and nothing to do with the fact that he’d missed Bucky’s constant presence. But Nat confirmed almost instantly that she had in fact been given the choice of working in Chicago or New York, and Clint had insisted on moving.

Bucky only had to knock on the apartment door once before Clint opened it, still in his pyjamas.

“So nice of you to dress for the occasion, Barton.” He noted. “How did you get to the door so fast? Were you waiting for me?”

“That’s less embarrassing than that truth so I’ll stick with that.”

“No, now I want to know the truth.”

Clint shrugged. “I ordered some Tupperware a few days ago and I’m really excited for it to arrive, so when I heard your car pull up I thought you were the delivery guy. Adulthood is weird. I’m becoming my mother.”

“I hear you. Last week I yelled at Steve in the middle of Ikea because he wanted to buy a table that was $2 more expensive than the one I wanted.”

“I don’t like what we’ve become.” Clint frowned, scratching his head thoughtfully. “Anyway! You want a coffee?”

“If it means you’ll stop standing in this open doorway in your underpants, yes.”

Ignoring the comment, Clint waved him inside and shut the door, heading through to the kitchen while Bucky made himself comfortable on the couch.

“So how was the viewing?” Clint asked, emerging from the kitchen with two mugs. “I mean I’m assuming from the fact that you’re not crying or trying to murder anyone that it went well. Unless you already murdered Steve and I’m your alibi, which I’m cool with, by the way.”

“No it’s okay, Steve lives. It was really good. Wedding planning is a lot of fun, you should try it.”

“Oh fuck you.”

“You’ve been in a stable relationship for over 7 years. It’s time.”

“You’re like my parents but worse. You realise that, right? Marriage is not my thing. It’s _definitely_ not Nat’s thing. Do you ever try and have this conversation with her?”

“Yeah.”

“And what does she say?”

“The same thing. But I’m gonna keep trying regardless.”

“You know I really wish we weren’t friends sometimes.”

“The feeling is mutual.” Bucky retorted. “Are you gonna be my best man, by the way?”

“What? Yeah! Obviously I’m gonna be your best man. I mean, not to sound conceited or anything, but who the fuck else is gonna do it?”

“I know. I just wanted to make sure.”

Snorting, Clint rolled his eyes and leant back against the couch. “As if I was gonna say no. No man will ever love you like I do.”

“Are you.. including my husband-to-be in that?”

“Absolutely.” He nodded. “I may not have made out with you as many times as Steve has, but I _have_ made out with you, and I think that counts for something. Oh shit, do I get to do a speech? That would be a great line.”

“If you’re happy to stand up in front of not only my family, but your own family, and tell them about how you’ve had my tongue in your mouth, then sure.”

“Why are you inviting my family to your wedding?”

“I don’t have a lot of family. Steve has no family. We need to fill seats.” Bucky shrugged. “Plus I want your brother to see what he could have had.”

“On no grounds are you to flirt with my brother at your own wedding.”

“What if he flirts with me? I have no control over his desires.”

“I will personally see to it that his invitation gets lost in the mail.” Clint warned, narrowing his eyes at him. “He’s a happily married man, and soon you’ll be a happily married man. I’m not letting you two run off together.”

“So you’re saying there’s a chance he _would_ run off with me?”

“Bucky, I swear to god.”

♥

They spent the rest of the afternoon arguing over whether Clint’s best man speech should be centred around the blossoming love affair between Bucky and his best friend’s brother. It was only when Bucky realised the time that he finally conceded, leaving Clint with a loving insult and a hurried goodbye before driving home.

Steve was asleep on the couch when he got in, mumbling some incomprehensible gibberish to himself. He stirred when Bucky sat next to him, and after a few minutes of Bucky running his fingers through his hair his eyes fluttered open and he smiled up at him sleepily.

“Mm.. morning..” He mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.

“It’s 7pm, baby.” Bucky said softly, sniggering when Steve looked around for a clock.

“Shit. Seriously? I feel like I’ve just had a whole night’s sleep.”

“How long have you been napping?”

“I don’t know. Me and Sharon ended up getting lunch before she drove me back. I think I got in at like.. 2:30? Then I caught up on most of my shows so.. probably only a couple of hours.” Steve shrugged, sitting up and nestling his head against Bucky’s shoulder. “Hotel is all booked though. I didn’t screw it up.”

“That’s good. Why did it take you two and a half hours to have lunch with Sharon?”

“Huh? Oh, we were talking about my art stuff. Did you know she does photography too? She has a little studio set up at her house and she let me take a look at it before we came back. Why?”

“Do you not think it’s kinda weird having lunch with our wedding planner? And then getting a tour of her house?”

“Why is that weird?” Steve chuckled. “She’s still a person, and she’s nice. Plus if her photography goes well, she could be a good connection to have.”

Bucky nodded to himself, leaning his head against Steve’s and staying quiet until Steve prodded his chest.

“Are you mad at me?”

“I’m not mad at you. I just think it’s weird.” Bucky mumbled, glancing at his phone and sitting upright. “I’m gonna make some pasta, do you want any?”

“I thought I was taking you out tonight?”

“Nah, I’m tired and I really wanna put pyjamas on.”

“’Kay.” Steve smirked, getting to his feet and pulling Bucky up. “You go get changed,” He said softly as he leant down to kiss him, “And I’ll start boiling some pasta.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Bucky said, smiling against his lips. “Do you want me to wear the galaxy ones that make my ass look great?”

“I think you mean they make your ass look out of this world.” Steve corrected, grinning and cocking his eyebrow. “Because space.”

“You’re an idiot.” He giggled, shoving Steve away from him and heading to the bedroom to dig out his space pyjamas.

♥

When he opened his eyes he was back at the hotel, but it was different. The room was filled with the loud buzz of people talking, and he could just make out the sound of violins playing faintly, but he couldn’t see anybody playing. As he looked around the room he realised there were now people sat in the chairs. He could see his parents in the front row talking with Tony and Pepper, the more he looked around the more people he recognised. His aunt, Steve’s friends, even the police squad were sat, talking among themselves.   
It took a few more moments for him to realise where he was standing. He looked up and saw the curtains draped over his head, forming the same lacy archway he’d seen when they’d looked around before. He turned to the side and saw Nat standing next to him in a pale blue dress, smiling and holding hands with Becky, who was wearing a matching dress and beaming up at him. He felt someone grab his hand and turned back around to see Steve smiling at him, dressed in a white suit with a bright red rose pinned to his lapel. The golden light in the room made his hair shine and his eyes sparkle, and it took a while for Bucky to remember how to speak.

“Hi.” He breathed, squeezing Steve’s hand to check it was real.

“Hi.” Steve said softly. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I just..” Bucky trailed off as he continued looking around the room, trying to take everything in. “This is really happening?”

“It’s not too late to back out.”

Bucky shook his head, holding tightly on to Steve’s hand. Everything looked perfect but something felt wrong. His stomach was doing flips, the violins seemed to be getting louder but he still couldn’t work out where they were coming from. More and more time passed and nobody seemed to be doing anything.

Chewing his lip nervously, he turned back to Steve and whispered, “When is it gonna start?”

“We’re still waiting on a few people.” Steve smiled, squeezing his hand. “It won’t be long.”

He frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion as he looked back over at the seats. They were all full. He could see Clint and Sam talking to each other behind Steve. Everyone he could think of was here.

“Who else is coming?” He asked, having to raise his voice as the sound of violins got louder.

“We’re still waiting on a few people.” Steve repeated.

“I know but-”

He was cut off by the sound of the door swinging open on the other side of the room, slamming loudly against the wall. Nobody in the room seemed to react to the disturbance, continuing to smile and chatter away to each other as if nothing had happened. Bucky could see someone walking into the room, but they seemed so far away. It wasn’t until they came closer, standing at the end of the aisle and looking up at him, that Bucky recognised him. He could feel his chest tightening painfully as Brock stared at him from across the room, cocking his head and grinning. He took a step forward and Bucky threw himself at Steve, trying to wrap his arms around him and whimpering helplessly when Steve stepped away from him.

“Steve we have to get out. I have to get out I can’t.. Stevie?”

Steve didn’t say anything. He continued staring ahead, smiling absently as if nothing were happening. Behind him Clint and Sam continued talking, Nat continued smiling, everyone in the room continued as if Brock weren’t there.   
He felt a hand on his waist spinning him around, and suddenly Brock was there, one arm wrapped tightly around him while the other hand slid up his arm, making his skin crawl. The hand made its way to his jaw, grabbing hold of him and tilting his chin up so he was forced to look at him.

“Hey, gorgeous.” He purred, chuckling as Bucky tried to squirm out of his arms. “Look at you, dressed up all pretty for me.”

“Steve!” Bucky cried, desperately trying to reach for Steve’s hand.

Steve didn’t react and Brock laughed, wrapping his other arm around him and dragging him away from the archway, through the rows of chairs to the door. He tried to scream but the sound of mindless chatter and violins had become so loud it drowned him out.

Everything went black and he screamed for Steve again, throwing his arms out and crying out when he hit something in the dark.

“Ouch! Jesus, Bucky, what is it?”

He heard the flick of a switch and squinted as the room flooded with light, burning his eyes. “No! Nononononono.” He whimpered, wrapping his arms around himself and squeezing his eyes shut when he felt tears starting to well up.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s me, sweetheart, open your eyes.”

Bucky felt someone touch his arm and screamed again, scrambling backwards frantically and yelping when two arms grabbed him, catching him just before he fell off the end of the bed.

“Open your eyes, baby.” A voice whispered and he finally did, blinking up at Steve in the dim light of their bedroom.

“Steve.. Stevie?” He whimpered, reaching out tentatively to touch his cheek.

“Yeah. It’s me, Bucky. I’m here.” Steve said softly as he brushed the hair out of Bucky’s face. “I’ve got you, baby.”

“Can’t breathe.”

“You are breathing, sweetheart. C’mere.”

Bucky felt Steve take his hand and hold it over his stomach, and he could feel it rising and falling quickly as he breathed in and out.

“You see?” He said after a few minutes, stroking Bucky’s hair with his free hand. “You’re okay.”

Nodding, Bucky shuffled closer to him and closed his eyes again, hiding his face against Steve’s chest and clinging to the fabric of his shirt as he tried to process what had happened. He felt like he was being choked and he couldn’t breathe in as much as he needed to, but he could feel Steve’s heart beating and tried to focus on that instead.

“Can I hold you?” Steve asked as he traced his fingers over Bucky’s shoulders, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing him tightly when he nodded. “I got you. You just had a bad dream.”

“Didn’t feel like a dream.” Bucky sniffled, rubbing his eyes when he felt more tears gathering. “It felt real. Your hand felt real and.. and _his_ hands felt real and-”

“He was in your dream?”

“It’s stupid, I know.”

“It’s not stupid. What happened?”

“He came to our wedding and.. nobody was paying any attention and he just grabbed me and dragged me away from you and you weren’t even reacting and..” He choked on a sob before he could finish, pressing his face back against Steve’s chest and holding him tightly. “It’s been fucking.. ten years and suddenly I’m having dreams about him again.”

“Buck, you’re just worried that _something’s_ gonna go wrong, so now your brain is giving you the absolute worst scenario.”

“Because I’m stupid.”

“No, because you’re nervous.” Steve said softly, tilting his chin up. “I mean it’s kinda real now, right? We can’t unbook the venue. I’m freaking out too.”

“I didn’t even know I _was_ freaking out.” Bucky mumbled. “I thought I was pretty chilled out actually.”

Chuckling, Steve kissed the top of his head and smiled at him. “I love you. And if that bastard comes within a ten mile radius of our wedding, I’ll kill him myself. I promise.”

“Thank you.” He said, chewing on his lip to stop himself from smiling. “Can you promise something else too?”

“Anything.”

“Don’t you dare wear a white suit for this wedding. It looked terrible on you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha nothing like a bit of light trauma to wrap up a chapter [finger guns] pls don't send me anon hate. 
> 
> Anyway I'm SORRY this chapter took so long but I've spent the past 4 months or so completely focused on my third year of uni and getting my dissertation done (but I got a first so it was worth it I guess), and if you follow my tumblr you'll also know that I've developed an addiction to sims 4 which added further delays. I have the entire summer to do fuck all now though so hopefully the following chapters will be up a little quicker than this one lmao thank you for being patient with me.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey, Buck, check this out.”

“What is it?” Bucky asked, not looking up as he unpacked the bag of groceries he was holding.

“You have to look.”

Sighing, he set the bag on the counter and turned around to see Steve grinning smugly at him from the other side of the kitchen.

“Buck, I’m filled with love for you. From my head..” He reached around and held up a pack of tomatoes. “ _Too ma toes!”_

Bucky looked at him for a moment, leaning back against the counter and stretching his hands out. “Babe, come here.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“Nothing, baby, I just want you to come over here for a second.”

Cautiously, Steve took two steps forward, letting Bucky take his hands and pull him closer.

“Stevie,” Bucky whispered, cupping Steve’s face in his hands and leaning up to whisper into his ear. “If you ever say some stupid shit like that to me again I’ll smother you in your sleep, do you understand me?”

“I understand. I’m sorry.”

“Love you.” Bucky said sweetly, kissing his cheek and handing him the grocery bag. “Now can you put these spices on the shelf for me.”

“I don’t know, Buck.” Steve murmured as he reached into the bag. “Are you sure I have.. enough _thyme_ to do that?”

“Steve, there’s not a judge in the world that would find me at fault for hitting you right now.”

“I never _mint_ to upset you.”

“You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

“Nooo!” Steve whined, clutching the grocery bag to his chest. “That’s not fair.”

“Bet you didn’t see that _cumin_.”

“Oh fuck you.”

Giggling, Bucky shoved Steve away from him lightly. “Now stop messing around. We have frozens to put away.”

“Does this mean that-”

“You’re still on the couch.”

“What! Why?”

“Because I’m still angry about the tomatoes.” He muttered, turning back around and staring at the pile of groceries on the counter. “Now should I put these mozzarella sticks away or are we gonna eat them now.”

“I can cook them.” Steve said softly, running his hands up Bucky’s back and squeezing his shoulders. “You go sit down and I’ll put the rest of this stuff away.”

“I was only kidding about making you sleep on the couch, Stevie. You don’t have to try and butter me up.”

“Oh. Well you can put this shit away yourself then because I have work to do.”

Bucky rolled his eyes but said nothing, continuing to unpack while Steve walked around the corner to his desk.

After 20 minutes Bucky still had a bag of groceries that he couldn’t find a home for, and was starting to accept that maybe Steve had been right about not needing to get four bags of nachos and four pots of dip just because they were on offer.

“Hey, Stevie,” Bucky said as he walked over to where he was sat, dumping the bags of chips in front of him. “I think we should have a movie night tonight and get fat on nachos. I really wanna watch that new star wars movie and-”

“I can’t tonight.” Steve mumbled, not looking up from his laptop. “Me and the guys are going out.”

“What? Since when?”

“Since yesterday.”

“Oh. I wanted us to have a night in.”

“You can still have a night in.” Steve said as he spun around on his chair. “You can eat nachos without me.”

“But I wanted _us_ to have a night in.” Bucky sighed, slumping forward and resting his head on Steve’s shoulder. “I feel like I haven’t spent time with you in ages.”

“We’ve been together all day.”

“Grocery shopping isn’t exactly quality time, Steve.”

Steve looked thoughtful for a moment. “Wanna just cuddle on the couch for like an hour?”

“I’d like that.” Bucky nodded, pulling Steve out of his chair and guiding him over to the couch.

Steve went pliant and let Bucky move them both into the optimum cuddling position, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him into his chest. They stayed quiet for a while, Steve running his fingers through Bucky’s hair while he closed his eyes and clung on to him.

“When was the last time you showered?” Steve asked after a few minutes, breaking the silence. “Your hair is greasy and gross.”

Shrugging, Bucky cracked one eye open and looked up at him. “I’ve been busy.”

“You were in bed ‘til almost noon today.”

“Rest is important.” He said matter-of-factly, folding his arms under his chin and frowning at him. “Is my stink ruining your cuddle time?”

“No, I don’t care about that. But you know excessive sleeping and no showering can be symptoms of depression so I feel like I should-”

“I’m not depressed, Stevie, I’m just lazy.” Bucky smirked. “The second you’re out that door tonight I’m gonna be having the most luxurious bubble bath ever. I’m gonna smell like royalty when you get home. I’ll be the picture of mental stability.”

“You’re gonna eat all of those nachos we bought aren’t you.”

“I absolutely am.”

Steve chuckled, shaking his head and smiling up at him. “I love you so much.”

“That’s smart. I’m a catch.”

“Yeah you are.” He grinned, pulling Bucky’s head down to kiss him.

“Do you have to go out tonight?” Bucky murmured, dipping his head to kiss his neck.

“I do.” He sighed. “Sam will kill me if I bail on him again.”

“Just tell him I wore some lacy lingerie for you. He’ll understand.”

“You’re not wearing lingerie.”

“Not _yet_ I’m not.”

“Save it for the honeymoon.” Steve chuckled, rolling them over and kissing his forehead before climbing off him. “I gotta get ready.”

♥

Aside from dropping nacho cheese dip on himself, knocking a wine glass flying, and getting trampled by a half blind cat, his plan to spend the evening bathing like a decadent prince had been a resounding success. It was just a shame there was nobody around to appreciate how soft and fragrant he was now. The cats seemed slightly more enthusiastic about snuggling up to him on the bed, but they were more interested in playing with the drawstring on his sweatpants than paying him compliments. Sighing to himself, he leant back against the cushions and scrolled mindlessly through Instagram.

Steve had finally convinced him to make an account a few months ago, although so far his profile consisted of one photo of Meg sleeping next to a banana, which for some reason had been hilarious to him at the time. Still, it helped him to pass the time, especially now that Clint had taking to posting pictures of all the dogs he encountered whenever he went out. He wasn’t really paying a whole lot of attention to any of the posts he was looking at until he reached a post Sam had made. The photo was of him, sat on the couch in pyjamas holding up a set of batman dvds with the caption “I have a date with Catwoman tonight”. Frowning, he checked the time stamp to see if he’d scrolled all the way to posts from yesterday, but it had only been uploaded two hours ago.

Meg jumped up onto his chest, chirping at him curiously and rubbing his face against Bucky’s cheek.

“Take a look at this, Megs.” He said quietly, turning his phone so Meg could see the screen. “Steve said he couldn’t bail on Sam tonight. But Sam is in his pyjamas watching batman, see? So I guess maybe Sam bailed at the last minute or something, but the caption implies that he planned this.”

Meg mewed and he nodded. “Exactly. But why would he lie about it? And where else would he be going? And why would he not want me to know about it and-”

He was interrupted by Meg licking his face and he sighed, rolling onto his side and burying his face in the cat’s fur. “Am I overthinking this?” He asked, curling up on the bed. Meg didn’t respond, but Opi scrambled up the bed and nestled herself in the crook of her arm, which he took as validation.

He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he was aware of was the creak of the bedroom door opening, the awkward rustling of Steve changing out of his clothes, and the bed jostling as he clambered in next to him.

“You awake, baby?” Steve asked as he wrapped an arm around Bucky’s waist, nuzzling the back of his neck affectionately.

“I am now.” Bucky murmured sleepily, sinking back into Steve’s arms despite himself.

“Sorry.” He whispered. “I tried to be quiet.”

“S’okay.” Bucky mumbled. “You have fun with Sam?”

There was a long pause and Bucky started to get his hopes up that he was going to come clean about where he’d really been, but his heart sank when he felt Steve nodding against his neck.

“Yeah, it was a good night.” He said, not seeming to notice Bucky trying to shift a little further away from him. “You have fun in your bath? You smell amazing.”

“It was fine.”

Steve was silent for a moment, kissing the back of Bucky’s neck and whispering, “Are you mad ‘cause I woke you up?”

Bucky didn’t respond and Steve kissed him again. “I’ll make you breakfast in the morning. I love you.”

The room fell quiet, and Bucky waited for Steve’s breathing to turn to snoring before prying his arms away and curling up on the other side of the bed on his own.

 ♥

Work the next day was rough. Not only for the fact that he’d gotten a grand total of around three hours sleep, but he’d also picked today to hand out wedding invites to everyone, which had seemed like a much better idea before his husband-to-be had started lying and disappearing to unknown places. Even Ororo’s excitement and insistence that the squad should throw him a bachelor party didn’t do much to lift his spirits.

While everyone else buzzed excitedly around the room and got on with their work, he sat at his desk staring blankly at his computer screen and typing absentmindedly gibberish in a word document to give off the illusion of productivity. He was so intently focused on doing absolutely nothing that he didn’t notice Rhodey’s multiple attempts to get his attention until he waved his hand in front of his face, making him jump and finally bringing him back into reality.

“You back with me, man?” He smirked, leaning against Bucky’s desk and cocking an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah.. sorry.” Bucky said groggily as he closed down the word document. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Coming up to five minutes.” He chuckled. “The Captain wants to see you.”

“What for?”

“I don’t know, I’m not the Captain. But he asked me to get you five minutes ago so you might wanna get in there.”

Nodding, Bucky got to his feed and walked cautiously over to the office door.

T’Challa had been Captain of the precinct since he first started working here. They hadn’t exactly gotten off to a great start after the Captain’s favourite mug was found smashed to pieces on the floor, right next to Bucky’s desk, which led to T’Challa having a small personal vendetta against him for the following week until they eventually checked the security footage and discovered that it had in fact been smashed by a witness that had been in for questioning. Since then they had maintained a strictly professional relationship with one another.  

The Captain was sat at his desk flicking through a case file when Bucky opened the door, gesturing to the chair opposite him without looking up.

“You wanted to see me, sir?” Bucky said quietly as he sat down, chewing on his lip nervously when T’Challa nodded. “Look, if this is about me spending the last 3 hours typing random words on my keyboard instead of doing any _actual work_ , I can explain.”

T’Challa set the file down on his desk, resting his chin on his hands and raising an eyebrow at him. “I had absolutely no idea you’d been doing that.”

“In that case, I’d respectfully ask that you disregard what I just said.”

Smirking, T’Challa picked up the small silver wedding invite on his desk. “I wanted to ask about this.”

“My wedding?” He asked, relaxing in his seat. “What about it?”

“Your husband’s friend, the funny one that uh.. he came to our Halloween party last year wearing angel wings and a cone on his mouth and told everyone he was a bird.”

“Sam?”

“Sam!” T’Challa nodded, snapping his fingers. “He will be there? At your wedding?”

“Uh.. yeah. He’s Steve’s best man.”

“Hmm. I did not get to speak to him at the party. I’d like you to introduce us.”

Bucky paused, trying to process the conversation. “So.. just to clarify.” He said slowly. “You called me into your office, during work hours, to ask if I’ll be your wingman?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“Right.” He nodded. “I mean.. I’m not even sure if he’s into dudes but-”

“He is.”

“You said you didn’t speak to him.”

“No, but we did make eye contact on seven separate occasions.” T’Challa told him, staring off into the distance for a moment before looking back at him and frowning. “You’ve known him for years. How could you not know that?”

“My own fiancé made out with me about 60 times before I realised he liked me. So I guess you could say I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes.”

“You are a difficult man for me to wrap my head around, James.” T’Challa said as he shook his head. “But I digress. Will you help me?”

“Oh, yeah absolutely.” Bucky smirked. “I’ll do my best.”

“Good. Now get back to work.”

♥

Steve was supposed to have work that evening, so Bucky was expecting to come home to an empty apartment. His plan had been to spend the time rehearsing a script in his head so he could confront Steve about why he’d lied the night before, but all this went out the window when he opened the door and came face to face with a giant bouquet of flowers.

Steve’s head appeared from behind the flowers, grinning at him and waving them in his face. “Surpriiiiiise.” He sang as he handed the flowers to him.

“Yeah.. you can say that again.” Bucky said, blinking at him in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

“I took the day off.” He shrugged. “I had some stuff I wanted to get done anyway. And I know you were upset about me going out at the last minute yesterday so I thought we could have a night in tonight instead.”

“Oh.. you didn’t.. you didn’t have to do that.” He stammered, unable to stop himself from smiling. “I would’a been happy with some McDonald’s fries, you didn’t have to get these.”

“I know, but I wanted to.” Steve grinned, kissing his cheek and chuckling at the faint blush that crept onto his cheeks. “You look worn out, want me to give you a backrub?”

Bucky frowned, setting the flowers down on the side table. “Steve, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were trying to compensate for something.”

“Can I not just do something nice for my fiancé every once in a while?” He asked, holding his hands up innocently. “So is that a no to the backrub or..?”

“Let’s not be hasty,” Bucky said as he walked over to the couch, lying on his stomach and pointing to a spot between his shoulders. “That desk chair is wrecking my spine.”

He could hear Steve laughing softly as he walked over, straddling his waist and pressing his thumbs into the spot he’d been pointing at.

“Can I ask you a weird question?” Bucky asked after a while, turning his head to the side. “Is Sam gay?”

Steve stopped working out one of the knots in Bucky’s shoulder and sat upright. “He’s pan. Why? Are you weighing up all your options before you make the full legal commitment?”

“No!” Bucky laughed. “My boss wants me to introduce them. Apparently Sam stole his heart at the Halloween party last year.”

“Yeah, Sam tends to have that effect on people.” Steve chuckled, returning his attention to Bucky’s back. “What happens if they hit it off? Do you get a promotion?”

“Didn’t ask. You think Sam will like him?”

“You tell me. You’re the one that has passionate sex dreams about him.”

“I had _one_ dream!” He exclaimed. “Just because I had _one_ sex dream about my boss does not make me a better judge of his compatibility with _your_ friend.”

“Baby, you’re tensing your muscles up again.”

“And who’s fault is that?” Bucky muttered, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. “I don’t know why I trust you with my intimate secrets.”

Laughing softly, Steve leant down and kissed the back of his neck. “Because I trust you with mine.”

Bucky hummed to himself and said nothing.

♥

“Becks! Don’t touch those!” Bucky yelled, running across the store and attempting to pry the 8 year old away from a very expensive looking jewellery display.

Becky stood her ground, putting her hands on her hips and looking up at him. “Bucky,” She said firmly, “I can’t be a _proper_ bridesmaid without a pretty necklace. I’ve seen pictures. Bridesmaids _have_ to have a pretty necklace.”

“You’re absolutely right, but could you maybe pick one that doesn’t have a four figure price tag?”

“Fiiiiiine.” She sighed, rolling her eyes at him like he was the biggest idiot on the planet.

“Hey, Buck, what do you think of this?” Nat asked, appearing behind them and holding up a lavender dress. “There’s a matching one in Becky’s size.”

“Too pastel.” He said as he lead Becky back to the dresses. “I want something more.. not.. that..”

“Thank you for being so specific. That really makes this easier.” Nat mumbled, putting the dress back on the rack and moving on to the next. “You could at least give me a few colour options.”

“Steve threw me off when he told me he didn’t want black bridesmaids dresses. I’ve had to go back to the drawing board here.”

Natasha paused, turning back to face him. “You’re marrying the human version of a labrador. The fact that you ever thought he’d be okay with your goth fantasy wedding is shocking to me.”

“He knew I was still stuck in my 2008 emo phase when he proposed.” Bucky shrugged. “I think it would look classy.”

“It would look like a funeral.” She said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “What if we stick to darker colours though. Like a dark blue or something?”

Bucky thought for a moment and nodded. “Steve likes green. Dark green would be a good compromise.”

“And it will look incredible with my hair.” Nat smirked.

After scouring the entire shop floor, they found a few dresses that met Bucky’s approval and headed over to the dressing rooms. Becky made things difficult by proclaiming every single dress she tried on to be her “absolute favourite dress in the whole world”, while Nat made things difficult by being unusually picky about the fitting of the dresses.

“I think this one is too tight.” She said as she stepped out in a knee length olive dress.

Frowning at her, Bucky got up and examined the dress. “It looks fine.”

“It’s fine now, but there’s no room for change. If I put on even half a pound of weight in the next two months this dress won’t fit.”

“Since when have you ever been worried about putting on weight, Nat? If anyone’s gonna be gaining weight it’s gonna be me. I already started stress eating a month ago. The rate I’m going you guys are gonna have to roll me down that fucking aisle.” He said, shaking his head when Nat snorted. “I’m serious. People will be coming up to me like ‘wow, Bucky, you have such a radiant bridal glow, what’s your secret?’ And I’ll have to tell them it’s not a glow, I’m just sweating grease.”

“I’ll make sure I pack some blotting papers.” Nat assured him. “But still, I think we should get something looser. I need extra space for wedding cake.”

“That’s fair. Try this one.” He said as he handed her the next dress on the pile.

He sat back down next to Becky, who was idly playing with his phone on a chair next to the wall. She paid no attention to him for a few moments, before suddenly grabbing his arm and looking up at him with a panicked expression.

“We forgot to find a dress for you!”

Laughing, Bucky ruffled the mop of pale blonde hair on her head. “I’m not getting a dress, princess. Just a suit.”

“Oh. That’s boring.” She said, huffing in disappointment. “Are you going to get a colourful one?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’ve been looking at a couple online. Wanna see?”

Becky nodded enthusiastically and he grinned, taking the phone out of her hands and scrolling through his photo gallery to find the ones he’d saved.

“Okay,” He said when he found the first photo of a black and purple suit, turning the phone so Becky could see. “I found this one a few weeks ago, but now I’m not sure it’ll look right with your dresses.”

“It’s pretty.”

“Or there’s this green velvet one which I thought could look cool if I-”

“No, that’s so ugly!” Becky exclaimed, scrunching her face up. “You can’t wear that.”

“It’s not _that_ bad!” He argued. “With the right shirt it might look nice.”

“Let me look at the picture properly” She said as she snatched the phone from his hands. “There. That’s better.”

“What did you do?”

“I deleted it.”

Bucky narrowed his eyes at her, taking the phone back. “Fine. It wasn’t my favourite one anyway.” He mumbled, flicking back through the photos. “ _This_ is my favourite. It’s shiny.”

He’d found the suit jacket online a few days ago, and had pretty much set his heart on it already. In most of the photos it looked dark grey, with a black trim, but the material looked shiny in the light. It added enough extravagance to make him look important, but not enough to draw too much attention.

“This is the best one.” Becky nodded. “If you’re not gonna wear a sparkly dress, you need a sparkly jacket instead.”

“Yes! Exactly!”

“Buck?” Nat said as she poked her head out of the changing room. “This is the best one.”  

She stepped out in a floor length bottle green dress, stretching her arms out proudly. “What do you think?”

“Oh my god.. I love it!” He said excitedly as he jumped to his feet, running over to her. “This one’s not too tight?”

“No, it’s perfect.”

“I have one that matches!” Becky piped up behind them, holding up another floor length dress from her pile in the same colour.

Bucky clutched his chest excitedly, looking back over at Nat and grinning. “See, how can anyone say God hates gays? Look at this. He fucking loves me.”

“Stop swearing in front of her.”

“Sorry. I’m so overwhelmed. If I stop swearing I’ll probably just cry.”

Smirking, Nat stroked his cheek affectionately. “So you wanna get these ones?”

Bucky nodded and Nat disappeared back into the changing room while he and Becky gathered up the rejected dresses to put back on the racks.

After the dresses had been paid for, and Becky had been dropped back off at his aunt’s, Nat convinced him that they both needed a drink before they went home. They’d been sat in the bar for almost fifteen minutes and Bucky, ever the gentleman, had been on his phone the whole time. He’d sent Steve a total of 23 photos of the dresses, accompanied by several excited texts begging for his approval. Finally he got an equally excited reply back.

**Steve**

❤

_I love them_ _❤❤❤❤❤_

_How much?_

**Bucky**

_About $200 for both_

**Steve** ❤

_Oh. That’s not so bad! Are you on your way back now?_

**Bucky**

_Nat and I are hanging out for a while. Probably be back in a couple hours._

**Steve** ❤

_Okay, I’ll see you later xx_

“How many beers do I have to buy you before you talk to me, Barnes?” Nat asked, laughing when Bucky looked up at her.

“Sorry. Steve likes the dresses.” Bucky told her. He took a sip of the beer in front of him before eyeing up the glass Nat was holding. “Are you drinking Coke?”

“Pepsi actually. I’m giving the alcohol a break for a while.”

“Did I miss the start of Lent or something?” He asked as he took another sip.

“No, I’m pregnant.”

Bucky gasped, inhaling the drink in his mouth and sending himself into a coughing fit for five minutes.

“You need me to call an ambulance?” Nat asked after a while, tapping her nails on her glass patiently.  

“No.” Bucky coughed. “The alcohol burning my lungs isn’t gonna distract me from this. What do you mean you’re pregnant?”

“I’m not sure how else I can explain it.”

“You’re really serious? There’s a real human person inside your body right now?”

“It’s more like a shapeless bundle of cells right now, but sure.” She shrugged nonchalantly, taking a sip from her glass.

“How long have you known?”

“What time is it?”

“4:30.”

Sitting upright, Nat counted her fingers and nodded to herself. “About seven hours.”

“Wow. You are.. _remarkably_ calm about this.” Bucky said, leaning back in his chair. They were both silent for a moment while he processed everything, before he looked back up again and asked quietly, “Wait, does Clint know about this?”

Nat shook her head and he gasped again. “Oh, is he not the dad? Oh my god, am _I_ the dad? Are we having a baby?”

“Bucky, how the fuck could you be?”

“I don’t know!” He squeaked, holding his hands up in confusion. “It’s just weird that you’re telling me first! Why _are_ you telling me this?”

“You always react to everything with about ten times the intensity of a normal person. If I tell you first I get a good idea of what the most extreme reaction will be.”

“I’m a trial run?”

“Pretty much.” She nodded. “And it worked, because now I know that no matter how Clint reacts, he probably won’t choke himself to death.”

“Touché.”

They both laughed and Bucky shook his head, sighing to himself. “This is so crazy. I’m gonna be an uncle. You’re gonna be a _mom_. I mean _holy shit_. Holy-”

He was interrupted by the sound of his phone buzzing loudly on the table as the screen lit up with a message.

**Steve** ❤

_Bucky’s gonna be out for a little while, so I’ll be over in a few minutes._

Frowning, he unlocked his phone and read the message again.

**Bucky**

_?????????_

**Steve** ❤

_oh whoops, wrong person! sorry x_

**Bucky**

_Lol where are you sneaking off to?_

Steve didn’t reply and Bucky frowned, setting his phone back down on the table and huffing to himself.

“Trouble in paradise?” Nat asked, cocking her eyebrow at him when he looked up.

“No.. I mean.. he texted the wrong person but now he won’t tell me who he’s texting so I don’t know who he’s going to see while I’m out and last week he told me he was going to see his friends and he _specifically_ said Sam was there but I know he wasn’t which means he lied and now I have no idea where he went and he’s never lied about anything before so I don’t know what he’s being so secretive about do you think it’s weird or am I overreacting I mean I probably am but I’ve been thinking about it all week and I keep thinking maybe-”

“Buck.” She interrupted, waiting for him to get his breath back before she continued. “Have you actually talked to him about this?”

“No.”

“Even though talking to him would solve the problem immediately?” She said. “Like.. you could literally just _ask_ him where he was.”

“Are you really in a position to give me this advice? You know, considering you just announced your pregnancy to me before the actual father of your child?” Bucky pointed out. “I mean it’s kinda rich for you to lecture me about good communication when-”

“That’s different!” She insisted. “I’m just holding off from giving Clint some news. You’re bottling up your feelings and working yourself into a panic. They’re two different situations.”

“Still..”

“You have to talk to him.”

“I know, but-”

“ _Bucky_.”

“I wiiiiiill!” He whined. “Eventually.”

“Well can you do it before next week? I don’t need that tense atmosphere hanging around us.”

“What’s happening next week?”

Nat blinked at him. “It’s Steve’s birthday. You already invited us over.”

“That’s next week!?” Bucky exclaimed, sitting upright. “Shit!”

“It’s literally a national holiday, how can you forget it?”

“I’ve been preoccupied! I’ve been so distracted by doubt, anxiety, and the lingering symptoms of trauma that I’ve never fully dealt with, I totally forgot about his fucking birthday.” 

Smirking, Nat shook her head at him. “I’m free for last minute birthday shopping tomorrow.”

“I owe you my life.”

“Just please promise me you will talk to him before his birthday?”

“I absolutely will.”

♥

He absolutely did not. In fact, not only did he neglect to confront Steve about sneaking out the first time, he also turned a blind eye to him abruptly leaving for the night twice more. Once for a “co-worker’s birthday”, despite his constant ranting about how much he hated his co-workers, and again to do some “late night shopping”, which Bucky was certain wasn’t a thing, and even if it was, Steve didn’t buy anything while he was out. Despite this, he’d managed to plan and execute a successful birthday so far without Steve noticing his continuous internal conflict.   
He’d managed to cook a full breakfast without burning anything which was, in itself, a miracle. Steve thought the “Sorry Ladies, I’m Married” t-shirt Bucky bought him was cute, and not in any way possessive or creepy. Or maybe he did and he was just keeping it to himself, but he still wore it for the rest of the day anyway so Bucky took it as a victory. They even made it through lunch without Steve looking him in the eye and dramatically confessing that he was leaving him for someone older and richer. Not one of the potential upsets that Bucky had prepared himself for ever came to pass, and now they were just waiting for their friends to arrive for the evening.   
Sam showed up first with three boxes of pizza, immediately thrusting them into Bucky’s arms and pulling Steve into a bear hug. Clint and Nat turned up a few minutes later, followed by Thor, and Steve’s old work friends Scott and Wanda.

“This is everybody, right?” Bucky asked as he counted out a stack of glasses. “We only have seven glasses. Why did we buy such a weird number?”

“We bought eight.” Steve replied, leaning against the counter and smirking at him. “And then you dropped one the second we unboxed them.”

“Oh.. right. That’s okay, I can just take mouthfuls of vodka and coke straight from the bottle and mix them in my mouth.”

“Uh huh. Or we can use mugs.” Steve chuckled, grabbing two mugs from the cabinet and setting them on the counter.

“We only need one.”

“Oh, Sharon should be here in a few minutes, so we’ll both need mugs.”

Frowning, Bucky turned to face him. “You invited our wedding planner.. to your birthday party?”

“Yeah? I thought I told you?”

“You definitely didn’t tell me that.”

“Oh.. well.. I have now.” Steve shrugged. “Why are you being so weird about it?”

“You invited somebody we’ve met about ten times, who we pretty much exclusively talk about flower arrangements and cake decorations with, to a get together with friends, and you think _I’m_ being weird?”

Steve folded his arms defensively, opening and closing his mouth a few times before finally mumbling, “I’ve talked to her about more than flower arrangements.”

Before either of them could say anything else there was a knock at the door, and Steve, who looked visibly relieved, hurried off to answer it. From across the room Bucky could hear Sharon’s voice when the door opened.

“Hi! Happy birthday!” She said excitedly. “I love the shirt. Isn’t it a little early though? You’re not _actually_ married yet.”

“Yeah I said that too, but Buck said if he’d bought one that said ‘I’m _getting_ married’ I’d only be able to wear it for like, a month.”

Shaking his head, Bucky refocused on what he was doing, tuning out the rest of their conversation as he scooped up the mugs and glasses and carried them carefully over to the couch where the others were sitting. He ended up sitting on the floor with Clint and Scott, and made a mental note that if they wanted to continue being social people they’d have to buy some more chairs. But being this much lower down than everyone else had a silver lining, in that he could talk to Clint without anyone else being able to hear them properly.

While everyone else was distracted by Thor, who was midway through a fairly implausible and very loud story about the time his dad killed a wolf with his bare hands, Bucky put down his mug of vodka and prodded Clint’s arm.

“I need validation for a second.”

“I treasure your friendship, and those jeans make your thighs look incredible.” Clint said, sipping his beer and nodding his approval.

“That’s not what I meant, but thank you.” He smirked. “I just need your opinion on something because I can’t tell if I’m overthinking or not.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you think it’s weird for Steve to invite Sharon here? Because like, I don’t have anything against her, but all I know about her is her name and her job. But he seems to think we’re best pals with her or something?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty weird.” Clint nodded, setting his glass down and glancing over at them. “Has he been to see her on his own?”

“Well.. this is where the potential overthinking comes in.” Bucky explained. “Because he keeps going out at really weird times and giving obviously made up excuses. So now I’m like.. I don’t know.”

“You think he’s going to see her?”

“Do I sound crazy?”  

“Not really.” He said, shaking his head. “I mean it would explain why he’s more friendly with her than you. Not sure why he wouldn’t just tell you about it though.”

“Right, which then leads to _more_ overthinking and-”

“He’s not cheating on you.”

“I didn’t finish my sentence.”

“I could tell where you were headed.”

Bucky huffed, wrapping his arms around his legs and resting his chin on his knees. “I can’t think of any other explanations though.”

“There’s literally a billion other explanations, Buck. Why do you have to go straight for the absolute worst? I’ve known him just as long as you have and I’m telling you there’s no way he’d do that. I’d bet my life on it.”

“What are you guys whispering about?” Scott asked loudly, and suddenly all eyes were on them.

“Uh.. we were..” Bucky started, looking over at Clint in a panic.

“We were just.. we were talking about..”

“About how we.. have to.. uh..”

“We have to.. get cake! We have to get the cake out! Buck, where’s the cake?”

“Yes! Right! It’s in the kitchen I’ll just.. let’s go get it.” He nodded, getting to his feet and dragging Clint across the room.

“You do actually have a cake right?” Clint asked when they got to the kitchen. “Otherwise this is gonna get awkward pretty fast.”

“Obviously I have a cake. It’s lucky you came up with that. I was just gonna tell everyone Nat was pregnant and then she’d probably kill me.”

“How the fuck do you know that?”

“She told me.” Bucky shrugged, swinging the fridge door open and passing the American flag cake out to him. “She told me before you, actually. Which I think gives me some custodial rights over the baby.”

“You can fuck off.”

Smirking, he handed Clint some matches so they could light the candles before carrying it back over to Steve. It wasn’t until after everyone had sung happy birthday and the candles had been blown out that he actually looked at the cake, snorting and looking up at Bucky.

“Are you kidding me?”

“This is America’s day, not just yours.” Bucky told him. “Do you like it? I spent ages on it.”

“You made it?”

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised about that, considering how shit it looks. No self-respecting bakery would ever sell this.”

Chuckling, Steve took the cake out of his hands. “It looks great. I love it.”

They went outside to eat the cake, sitting on the wall by the apartment block and watching the fireworks in the distance. After a few more drinks and several more drunken happy birthday choruses everyone left to go home, leaving Bucky with an apartment full of bottles, cans, and dirty plates.

“You don’t have to clean those now.” Steve said sleepily, watching from the couch as Bucky stacked up the plates.

“If I don’t they’ll be all gross in the morning.” Bucky mumbled. “You can go to bed if you want, you don’t have to wait for me to finish.”

Shaking his head, Steve got to his feet and padded over to him. “Let me help.” He said, taking the plates out of Bucky’s hands.

“You can’t do dishes on your birthday, it’s against the rules.”

“It’s not my birthday anymore.” He told him, pointing to the clock on the wall. “It’s four minutes past midnight.”

Bucky shrugged, grabbing a trash back from the kitchen cabinet and collecting up the bottles while Steve washed the dishes. Once everything looked a little more presentable they headed into the bedroom, collapsing down onto the bed next to each other.

“I had a really great day.” Steve said after a while, rolling onto his side and nuzzling Bucky’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Bucky mumbled quietly, staring up at the ceiling and sighing.

“What’s wrong, baby?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

“No you’re not.” He said as he sat up, running his thumb across Bucky’s cheek and tilting his chin to look at him. “You’ve been acting weird all day, all week actually. I just wanna talk to you.”

Bucky chewed on his lip, rolling onto his side and looking up at him. “Can we talk tomorrow? I’m really tired and I’ve had a lot to drink and I just.. my head’s not in the right place for a serious conversation right now. We could get lunch and I can unload on you then?”

“Uh.. yeah.. yeah we can do that.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! I had a thing planned tomorrow but I can cancel it. Wasn’t that important.” Steve said quietly, pulling his phone out of his pocket and typing something.

“Oh.. okay.”

“I’m gonna go brush my teeth.” He said as he tossed his phone onto the mattress, leaning down to kiss Bucky’s forehead. “Back in a sec.”

Bucky nodded sleepily, curling up on his side and watching him go. It was quiet for a while and he was starting to doze off when the sound of Steve’s phone vibrating jolted him awake again. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up and looked over at the phone. He could see a text message flashing up on the screen, but it was too far away for him to make out what it said. Chewing on his lip, he glanced over at the bathroom door across the hall and drummed his fingers against his leg. _Technically_ this didn’t count as snooping, right? The phone was right there. It’s not like he was going to unlock it and read Steve’s entire conversation. Just _one_ text that was already right there in front of him. Assuring himself that he absolutely still had the moral high ground, he snatched the phone up and read the message.

**Sharon**

_No worries, I’m sure I can fit you into my busy schedule another time ;)_

“What are you doing?”

Steve’s voice made him jump and he threw the phone across the bed in a panic, looking up at him standing in the doorway. “I was just um.. Are you done in the bathroom ‘cause I have to-” He said hurriedly, jumping off the bed pushing past him.

“No, hey!” Steve said as he grabbed his arm. “What’s going on?”

“Get off me.” He grumbled, wrenching his arm away and heading towards the bathroom door.

“Buck, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with _you_?” He demanded as he spun around, walking back towards him and staring up at him. “You’ve been disappearing out for _weeks_ , saying you’re going to see your friends or whatever and I _know_ you’re lying because I’ve seen them doing things without you and even if I _didn’t_ have actual physical proof you’re still the absolute worst liar I’ve ever met in my entire life and..”

Bucky trailed off, trying to organise his thoughts into cohesive sentences while he got his breath back. He was starting to really regret opening his mouth without going to the bathroom to rehearse everything first, but now he was stuck here and Steve was staring at him waiting for him to say something and he had no idea where to start.

“I mean of all the fucking people..” He started, feeling tears starting to gather in his eyes and rubbing them away furiously. “Of all the people you could have picked to go sneaking off with you choose the person who’s supposed to be helping us with _our_ wedding? Like are you fucking kidding me? I mean why would you even.. what am I supposed to.. can you just fucking say _something_?”

Steve stared at him for a moment, his mouth hanging open in shock. “I’m sorry.” He said quietly after what felt like an hour. “Buck I’m so.. I didn’t even.. it’s not like that at all I was just-”

“She sent you a _winky face._ ” Bucky mumbled, rubbing his eyes again before wrapping his arms around himself.

“Baby, come here.” Steve said softly, reaching his arms out towards him.

Bucky shook his head but didn’t put up a fight when Steve pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around him and kissing the top of the head. “Are you telling me that your main evidence for me having a sordid affair with another woman, is that she sent me a text with a wink emoji?”

“You’re not _denying_ it.”

“Yeah I am. Big time. And I have more proof than you.”

“What proof?”

“Well, I mean.. for starters Sharon’s a huge lesbian.”

There was a long pause, and when Bucky finally looked up at him he could see that Steve was trying his hardest to stop himself from smiling.

“You’re joking.” He said slowly. “Steve I swear to god you better be joking.”

“I’m not joking. She had a girlfriend until a few days ago.”

“What happened a few days ago?”

“They broke up. That’s why I invited her over tonight, I thought it would cheer her up. Would have saved us a lot of drama if I’d actually remembered to tell you that.” Steve smirked, pursing his lips together to stop himself from laughing.

“This isn’t funny, Steve. This has been eating away at me for fucking weeks. I felt like shit.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” He said, squeezing him tightly. “Come over here.”

He guided Bucky back into the bedroom, sitting him down on the bed and picking his phone up. Bucky watched as he scrolled frantically through his messages, frowning when Steve thrust the phone into his hand.

“There.”

“What’s this?”

“My first conversation with her.” Steve explained. “I mean I could just tell you why I’ve been going over there, but I don’t want you worrying that I’m just lying again.”

Nodding, Bucky looked down at the phone, scrolling through the messages slowly.

**Steve**

_hey! I know this is really out of the blue, but I have a favour to ask_

**Sharon**

_Hi! What’s up?_

**Steve**

_I’ve been thinking of making Bucky something as like a wedding present but I don’t wanna do it at home because he’s here most of the time and I don’t want to risk him finding it. So I was thinking I could use that little studio you’ve got?_

**Steve**

_it’s no problem if it’s really inconvenient for you it’s just yours is pretty much the only place I can think of where he’s never gonna be :’)_

**Sharon**

_No that’s fine!! That’s so cute_

**Steve**

_Awesome! I have no idea what I’m gonna do yet but I have about 300 ideas_

Bucky felt Steve squeeze his shoulder and looked up at him, setting the phone down on the duvet next to him.

“I’m really sorry I lied to you, Buck.” Steve said softly as he pulled him closer. “I only did it because..” He paused, shaking his head at himself and sighing. “I did it because I didn’t want you to get paranoid.”

“How’d that work out for you?”

“Pretty terribly, as it turns out.”

They both stared at each other for a moment, not saying anything. Despite his best efforts, Bucky was the first to crack, hiding his face with his hands as he burst into a fit of giggles. That set Steve off too, and soon they were both rolling on the bed laughing. By the time he’d finally calmed down again, Bucky was exhausted, clambering on top of Steve and resting his head against his shoulder.

“You’re an idiot.” He mumbled sleepily. “We’re both giant fucking idiots.”

“Do you think that’s why we work?”

“Mmhmm. We balance each other out.”

“Buck, if this is us balanced out, I genuinely don’t think we’d survive more than a day on our own.” Steve chuckled, wrapping his arms around his waist and burying his face in his hair. “We’re gonna _have_ to stay together. It’s the only way we’re gonna survive.”

“What a hardship.”

Bucky felt Steve’s chest shaking as he laughed, snuggling closer to him and yawning. “I love you.” He murmured. “I’m sorry for yelling at you on your birthday. Should’a talked to you sooner.”

“S’okay.” Steve said softly. “I promise I won’t lie to you like that again. I’ll incorporate it into my wedding vows if you want.”

“You’re writing your own?”

“Not for the actual wedding. I was gonna, but then I showed some of it to Sam and he told me I couldn’t have vows longer than the extended version of lord of the rings. So I just thought I’d keep them and give them to you at some point.”

“Steve you gotta stop doing cute shit like this.” Bucky sighed. “Now I’m gonna have to do that to, otherwise I’ll look bad.”

Steve didn’t say anything, and after a few minutes Bucky could hear him snoring. Despite how tired he was, he still didn’t feel any closer to falling asleep, so instead he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started making a list of things he loved about Steve, ready to write into wedding vows in the morning.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long but here it is!! (I haven't proofread this because I wanted to get it up as soon as possible so if there are any major mistakes just let me know lmao)

He’d been staring into his suitcase for twenty minutes now. His suit was packed, shoes were packed, four changes of clothes were packed, an umbrella in case it rained, a coat in case it snowed, sunglasses in case it was sunny, several different deodorants and aftershaves, but he was still anxious about forgetting something.

“You ready to go, Buck?” His dad asked, poking his head around the bedroom door and frowning at him when he saw the open suitcase. “You know you’re only staying over for one night, right? You look like you’re packing for a month.”

“I’m trying to prepare for every eventuality.” He told him. “I mean what if I get a spontaneous nosebleed tomorrow and have no spare shirts? Or I wake up with a headache and have no aspirin? What then?”

“We have aspirin at home, Bucky.”

“Well I’m bringing three packs just in case.”

Sighing, his dad dragged his hand down his face and shook his head. “Whatever. Can you try to hurry up though? When I agreed to pick you up I didn’t realise it was gonna take two hours.”

“It’s not my fault that you constantly assume I’m gonna be ready on time. You’ve known me literally my entire life, you should be used to this by now.” Bucky shrugged, zipping the suitcase shut and dragging it across the room. “Okay, I’m almost ready. I just have to get Meg.”

“You mean to say goodbye or..”

“No, he’s coming too.”

“Again, I would like to remind you that you’re staying at our place for one night.”

“I need him for moral support.” Bucky said, thrusting the suitcase into his dad’s arms and pushing past him to the sitting room.

He found both Meg and Opi under desk, being stubbornly ignored by Steve as they chewed on the end of his socks.

“Megsy!” He called, scooping the cat up and kissing his face. “We’re leaving.”

“You’re taking Meg?” Steve asked as he pried Opi off his foot. “What about my baby girl?”

“What about her? I thought you’d want her to stay here.”

“That’s gonna be so bad for her self-esteem! You’re showing obvious favouritism.”

“Would you prefer if I took them both with me?”

Steve paused, looking down at the cat in his lap thoughtfully. “No.” He mumbled as he scratched her chin. “I want her to stay.”

“Now who’s playing favourites?” Bucky smirked. “I’m gonna miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.”

“I was talking to Opi.” He said, laughing when Steve narrowed his eyes at him. “I’m just kidding!”

“Remind me again why you think it’s necessary to stay at your parents tonight?”

“I don’t know. We’re getting married tomorrow, I just feel like _that_ should be the first time we see each other.” Bucky shrugged. “That’s what they do in movies and stuff.”

“What if you stayed here, and we just wore blindfolds for the entire morning.”

Bucky giggled, leaning down to kiss his forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said quietly. “I’m gonna look _super_ hot, so you better prepare yourself for that.”

“I will do my best.” Steve grinned. “See you tomorrow.”

Tilting his head up, Steve pressed a kiss to his lips, before waving goodbye to Meg and leaving them to head off.

Most of the drive to his parent’s house was quiet, aside from Bucky whispering lovingly to Meg every so often. But after almost twenty minutes his dad finally spoke.

“Okay, I have a question for you that I’ve been avoiding because it _seems_ like a really stupid question, but it’s also never come up in casual conversation so-”

“What is it, dad?”  

“Am I supposed to give you away tomorrow?” He asked, looking over at him in genuine confusion. “I just.. I can’t figure it out. I mean you’re my son, and nobody really gives their son away, as far as I know. But I’ve only ever been to straight weddings so I don’t really know how this works. Like is one of you just gonna walk down the aisle on your _own_ or what?”

Bucky sniggered, shaking his head at him. “No, we’re gonna walk down together.”

“Oh, right.”

“You can still give me away if you want.” He smirked, nudging his dad’s arm. “I’ll let you hold my hand and everything.”

“No thanks, I try to avoid attention as much as possible.” His dad mumbled as he turned his attention back to the road.

His mom was already waiting outside when they pulled into the drive, hurrying over and wrapping her arms around Bucky the minute he got out of the car.

“Oh my baby boy.” She said, squeezing him tightly. “How are you feeling? Are you nervous? Are you excited? Did you remember to pack everything? I just finished baking some cookies so if you need a snack or anything-”

“Mom, oh my god.” He laughed, wrenching himself free. “Chill out for a second.”

“Sorry. I’m so excited for you.” She admitted.

“She’s been running ‘round like a mad woman all morning.” His dad added, struggling with the weight of Bucky’s suitcase.

“If I sit still for too long the excitement gets too overwhelming.” She said, reaching up and stroking Bucky’s cheek affectionately. “But _you_ seem remarkably calm right now.”

“Yeah, I’m weirdly relaxed. Don’t think my brain’s processed what’s going on yet, but I’m gonna ride this wave for as long as possible. What was that about cookies?”

Grinning, his mom took hold of his arm and the three of them walked into the house together.

The wave of relaxation lasted a lot longer than he ever could have expected. It wasn’t until late in the evening when he was sat with his mom watching TV that he was hit in the chest with sudden existential dread.

“Oooooh shit.” He said, sitting up and running his hand through his hair. “Shit.”

“James.” His mom said sternly, not looking up.

“Sorry. I’m just.. I’m gonna get married. I mean.. _shit!_ ”

“ _James!_ ”

“Sorry!”

Rolling her eyes, she sat up and put her arm around him. “What are you worried about?”

“Do you want a list?” He asked. “Do you think this is all an elaborate joke constructed just to humiliate me?”

“Yes. I think Steve dated you for 8 years, proposed, and planned an entire wedding, just so you could be humiliated at the last minute in a small room of people for a few minutes.”

“I know you’re being sarcastic but honestly that sounds like something he’d be petty enough to do.” Bucky said quietly, smirking when she narrowed her eyes at me. “Okay so maybe that’s unrealistic. But there are about 300 things that _could_ go wrong tomorrow.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know..” He mumbled, slumping back on the couch. “What if.. what if he changes his mind? What if _I_ change my mind? What if I show up tomorrow and realise this whole thing has been a massive mistake but it’s too late to do anything about it and I end up making this massive commitment but then I regret it and it ruins my life and breaks Steve’s heart and-”

“Sweetheart, come here.” His mom said softly as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him towards her and kissing the top of his head. “Everything’s gonna be fine, I promise. I felt the same before I married your dad.”

“Really?”

“Mmhmm.” She nodded. “I haven’t had any regrets yet. Except for one brief moment when you were born and he suggested we name you Justin, but I got over that eventually.”

“Why Justin?”

“He was going through an NSYNC phase.”

“I was.. dad almost named me after Justin Timberlake?”

“I was never gonna let him go through with it, honey.” His mom promised him. “Anyway, my point is it’s normal for you to be nervous.”

Bucky nodded, looking down at his hands and twisting the engagement ring on his finger. Neither of them said anything until his mom got up to say goodnight, kissing his forehead and sternly advising him to go to bed.   
Sighing, he turned the TV off and dragged his feet to his bedroom, falling backwards onto the bed and staring up at the ceiling. Meg hopped up next to him and curled up against his arm, blinking at him curiously.

“You wanna place bets on how much sleep I’m gonna get tonight? I’m thinking three hours.”

Meg mewed and he nodded. “Yeah you’re right, I’m _am_ being too optimistic.” He sighed, rolling over and burying his face in the pillow.

♥

The next morning felt like a surreal, out of body experience. Almost like he hadn’t completely woken up yet. He could remember having breakfast, talking to his parents, and getting ready, but it felt like he was remembering a dream instead of remembering real life. Even sat in the back of the car he still didn’t feel like any of this was actually happening.

“Bucky?”

Nat’s voice broke him out of his daze slightly and he turned away from the window, blinking at her blankly.

“Huh?”

“You okay?”

Bucky nodded. “Yeah. I just feel weird.”

“Good weird or bad weird?” She asked, a hint of concern flashing across her face.

“I don’t know..” He said quietly, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s not a bad weird. I just feel like this is a dream and I’m suddenly gonna wake up and have to get ready again.”

“Do you want me to slap you?” Nat offered and Bucky snorted, shaking his head abruptly.

“Suit yourself.” She shrugged, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “It’s gonna be fine. If you start dissociating during the actual ceremony just give me a nod. I’ll deliver a swift kick to your shin to bring you back round.”

“Thanks, Nat.”

Sharon was waiting by the entrance when they arrived, waving excitedly as they approached her. He barely had enough time to say a hurried goodbye to his parents before she was grabbing his arm and whisking him inside, leaving Clint, Nat, and Becky to follow behind them.  

“Are you alright? You look great. How are you feeling? Excited? Nervous? Do you have to throw up? Because I scheduled in some time for that just in case.” She asked as she lead them down a corridor.  

“I might have to!” Clint piped up from behind.

“Oh.” Sharon said, turning around to look at him. “Are you nervous?”

“No. Just uncomfortable with pda.”

“Yeah Clint’s actually been a violent homophobe this whole time. This is just part of his community service.” Bucky told her, sniggering when she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Can we focus? Steve’s waiting for us.”

“I didn’t think we were late?” Bucky said as he looked down at his watch.

“You’re not. He just got here ridiculously early. I found him pacing in the hall when I arrived.”

“Yeah that sounds about right.”

They arrived at a door and Sharon turned to look at him. “You want me to give you guys a minute on your own?”

It took Bucky a second to process what she was asking, blinking at her a few times before slowly nodding his head. Sharon just smiled at him and pushed the door open, letting him slip through before closing it again behind him.

He remembered this room from when they’d first come to look around, and he knew the door to his left lead into the main wedding area. His brain was so foggy it took him a few moments to even realise that Steve was standing a few feet in front of him.

“Oh! Hi.” He said awkwardly, running a hand through his hair and looking him up and down.

The suit he was wearing was plain black, but he was making it look like a million bucks right now. Maybe it was the wedding haze. Maybe it was just the fact that Steve was a smoking hot piece of ass. Who could really tell anymore?

“You look good.”

“Thanks.” Steve smirked, taking a step forward and squeezing his shoulders gently. “You look terrified.”

“I do? Is that why people keep asking if I’m okay?”

“I mean.. probably. You look like the human manifestation of existential dread.”

Bucky groaned, hanging his head and resting his forehead against Steve’s chest. “I thought I was coming across calm?”

“Swing and a miss, babe.” Steve laughed. “Now am I allowed to hug you or what?”

“ _Hug_ me?” Bucky exclaimed, gasping dramatically and looking up at him. “Before we are _wed_? The very _idea_.”

Laughing, Steve wrapped his arms around him and pulled him in tightly, humming happily when Bucky draped his arms over his shoulders. “What if we just did the entire wedding like this?”

“Stop trying to break from tradition. This is exactly what the straights warned us about.”

“Well considering 42% of their marriages end in divorce, maybe they need a little break from tradition.” Steve said nonchalantly.

Frowning, Bucky looked up at him questioningly. “Do you just happen to know that? Or have you been googling divorce rates?”

“I couldn’t sleep last night. I was looking for distractions.”

“And you thought the best way to distract yourself, on the night before your own wedding, was to look up the average rate of marriage failures?”

“Obviously it sounds stupid when you phrase it like _that_.” Steve protested. “I knew you’d probably make at least one divorce joke today, I just wanted to be prepared.”

Bucky opened his mouth to object, but he knew in his heart that he was probably right so he stayed quiet.

“You know what else I thought of while battling my anxiety fuelled insomnia?” Steve said after a few moments. “I’m gonna have to use your full name during our vows, and it’s gonna be the first time in our entire lives that I’ve actually addressed you by your first name.”

Frowning, Bucky shook his head. “That can’t be right.” He said, racking his brain. “You must have used it before, just to annoy me or something.”

“Nope, I don’t think so. To be honest most of the time I forget Bucky isn’t your actual name. It still throws me off when your mom says it.” Steve admitted. “And now I have to say your actual real name for the first time, in front of God.”

“I have to admit to the world that I’m marrying a man whose middle name is Grant. Who’s the real victim here?”

“Buchanan.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

Sniggering, Steve shook his head, smiling down at him affectionately. “We should probably let the others in.”

“Mm.” Bucky said thoughtfully. “We _could_ do that. Or we could run away, change our names, and start a life together in the country. That way I wouldn’t have to speak publicly in front of an audience.”

“You’re gonna be fine, babe.” Steve insisted, kissing his forehead reassuringly before pushing him to the side and reaching for the door.

The others crowded into the room as soon as Steve opened the door, and Sharon immediately started scurrying around trying to organise everyone. As she was trying to decide whether to send the bridesmaids of the best men out first, Steve shuffled back to Bucky’s side, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tightly.

Taking a deep breath, Bucky focused all his attention on Steve’s hand.

“You realise you’re not getting this hand back until this is over, right?” He warned. “Like if you let go at any point now.. I don’t even know _what_ would happen, but it would probably cause a scene.”

“I know. I got you.” Steve assured him, squeezing his hand again. “If you do feel like you’re gonna have a freak out, just nudge me and I’ll create a diversion by dropping dramatically to the floor and screaming.”

Bucky rolled his eyes but couldn’t fight the smile creeping across his face as he pictured the scene in his head.

“Okay! Are we ready to go?” Sharon asked, grabbing his attention.

Once the group had all murmured some variation of ‘yes’ and she clapped her hands together excitedly, hurrying across the room and cracking the door open. “Okay, in you go!” She said, pushing the door open fully and ushering them through in pairs. First Clint and Sam, followed by Nat, with Becky clinging nervously on to her dress, and then the next thing he knew, he and Steve were through the doors and walking down the aisle.   
He was thankful that they were at the back so that all he needed to think about was following everyone else. Lord only knows where they would have ended up if he were in charge of leading everyone else right now. He was also thankful that Steve had stayed true to his word and was still holding his hand, because he was pretty certain that was the only thing keeping him walking in a straight line. He wasn’t particularly thankful for Tony’s loud whooping as they walked past, which made him turn and take in the audience of people he was about to stand in front of.

He must have been subconsciously gripping Steve’s hand tighter because when he turned back he heard a whisper of, “You alright?” in his ear.

Steve was smiling calmly at him when he looked up and he nodded. “Yeah.” He whispered back, glancing back around the room again. “There’s a lot of people here.”

“I know. Tony’s friends?”

“Probably. I told him we needed to fill a few seats, I didn’t expect him to invite his entire workforce.”

Smirking, Steve squeezed his hand again and they both turned their attention back to where they were walking.

Thor was waiting for them when they got to the archway, grinning proudly from ear to ear. To cut a long story short, during a drunken night out Thor offered to get himself ordained so he could officiate their wedding. Thinking he was joking, they’d both agreed, only to find one week later that he had gone through with it and was now an ordained minister.

“Are you ready to start?” He asked them, somehow smiling even wider when they both nodded.

“My friends!” He boomed, throwing his arms in the air and commanding silence from the room. “We are gathered today to join these two men, one of which happens to be my best friend, which isn’t to say that I don’t also consider you to be a very good friend of mine, Bucky it’s just that I’ve known Steve for longer and-”

“It’s fine, man.” Bucky smirked, glancing over at Steve who just shrugged.

“Right! Anyway, on with the vows.”

What happened next? He honestly couldn’t say. His anxiety reached a peak and he just mentally checked out. It was like his brain had switched into autopilot for a few minutes and he’d been stuck watching from the backseat, unable to control what was going on. And now that he was back in control, trying to remember what had happened in the last few minutes felt like trying to recall a dream that had happened weeks ago.   
All he knew was that now he was sliding a ring onto Steve’s finger, and when he looked up Steve was beaming back at him.

“You okay?” He asked softly, cocking his head at him.

“Yeah.” Bucky nodded. “Did I screw it up?”

“No, you did great.” Steve chuckled, squeezing his hand tightly and turning back to Thor, who looked like he was having the absolute time of his life.

“This is going _amazingly_ well so far, guys.” He said proudly. “Your turn, Steve.”

Nodding Steve turned back to Bucky, gripping his hand impossibly tighter, and started repeating Thor’s words.

“James Buchanan Barnes,” He said, the corner of his mouth twitching into an awkward smile as he said his full name. “I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband. I vow to love you and care for you as long as we both live. I take you with all of your faults-”

“And there’s a lot of them.”

“Shut up, you’re perfect.” Steve shushed him, breaking out into a full on grin as he continued. “All of your faults, and all of your strengths. And I offer myself to you with all of my faults and strengths. I will help you when you need help, and I will turn to you when I need help. I choose to spend the rest of my life with you.”

For a moment they both stared at each other. Steve looked like he might cry if he said another word, and Bucky felt like his heart was about to either melt inside his body or burn a hole through his chest. He was fairly sure neither of those things had ever happened to a human being before, but there’s a first time for everything. It was Thor who finally brought them both back down to earth, leaning forward and whispering, “The ring.” To Steve.

“Oh, right.” Steve said, clearing his throat and turning around to Sam, who was already holding the ring out to him. “Thanks.”

When Bucky held his hand out he could see it was shaking, even though he had pretty much nothing left to be nervous about. Steve noticed and quickly took hold of it again, smiling up at him as he slid the wedding band onto his finger to meet his engagement ring.

“Do you both promise to love and cherish each other, for as long as you both live?” Thor asked, looking at them both in anticipation.

They both glanced at each other briefly before nodding in unison. “I do.”

“Then I can now pronounce you married!” He announced, clapping his hands together proudly. “We did it guys!”

There was a small pause and Steve leant forward, cocking an eyebrow at Thor expectantly. “May I.. kiss my husband now?”

“Oh! Absolutely!” Thor exclaimed.

Bucky was so overwhelmed by the entire experience, and so flustered from hearing Steve call him his husband, that the only response he could muster was an awkward laugh. And when Steve pulled him in and kissed him, in front of a whole audience of people, his brain only melted even more. All he cared about was making sure Steve didn’t move more than a foot away from him, so he grabbed on to the lapels of his jacket and tried to focus on not being a terrible kisser.

As the crowd cheered, Steve pulled away from him, smiling down at him and raising an eyebrow.

“Are you okay?” He asked, chuckling when Bucky stared dopily up at him.  

“Uh huh.” Bucky nodded, gradually regaining his grasp on the English language. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” Steve grinned.

“And I love both of you as well!” Thor interjected, patting them both firmly on the shoulders.

They both exchanged a look and Bucky sniggered, shaking his head. “So uh.. what do we do now?”

“Judging from Sharon’s frantic waving, I’m gonna say we go that way?” Steve said, nodding towards the other end of the room where Sharon was beckoning them.

“Oh, okay. Can I hold your hand?” Bucky asked, reaching towards him.

“Kinda feel like we’re at a point now where we don’t have to ask to hold each other’s hands.”

“I’m not sure our relationship is that serious yet.”

“We just got married.” Steve pointed out. His voice was flat as he spoke but he broke out into a goofy smile as soon as he’d finished his sentence. “Come on.” He said, taking Bucky’s hand and walking him back down the aisle towards Sharon.

“You guys...” Sharon croaked when they reached her, dabbing her eyes with a crumpled tissue. “That was so perfect.”

“Do you need a second?” Bucky teased as she pulled a compact out of her pocket and attempted to clean away some of the mascara under her eyes.

“No. No I’m fine. I can’t believe you guys aren’t crying. You should be the ones crying!”

“Oh I was fully dissociating for most of that. Give me like an hour and I’ll probably be a mess.” He assured her. “And Steve isn’t programmed to feel emotion so you don’t have to worry about him.”

“Suck a dick.” Steve retorted. “Most of my energy is focused on keeping it together right now.”

Sharon giggled, taking a deep breath and composing herself. “Right, we all need to go and get the marriage certificate signed, then we can go outside and do family photos and stuff. Okay?”

They both nodded, following her back through the door.

“Speaking of family photos,” Bucky said as they walked. “Now that we’re officially a family, I think it’s time we finally paid for a photoshoot of us and the cats. I wanna start a portrait wall.”

“Hey Sharon, you don’t happen to double up as a divorce attorney do you?”

“No, but I _do_ double up as a photographer.” She replied, turning and winking at him. “I can sort that photoshoot out at a discount rate.”

“See, Stevie, you’re outnumbered.” He teased, sniggering when Steve rolled his eyes.

In hindsight, he wished he would have appreciated the calm and peaceful atmosphere that surrounded just sitting and signing certificates. As soon as they were done they were whisked back down the corridor and outside, where they were then herded around for photos for almost an hour. First by the photographer, then Bucky’s mom, then Tony. Once all that was done, the rest of the party descended on them, and Bucky immediately found himself getting separated from Steve as people hounded them both to congratulate them.

Pepper was the first to grab him, immediately pulling him into a hug while Tony circled back around and patted him on the shoulder.

“I’m so happy for you!” She squealed as she squeezed the life out of him.

Bucky squeezed her back, watching over her shoulder as Steve disappeared into the crowd. “Thanks, Pep.” He said as he pulled away from her. “It’s good to see you guys.”

“You too. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen Tony cry.”

“I wasn’t- I had something in my eye!” Tony insisted. “In both eyes.”

Pepper snorted and Bucky had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing.

“So,” Tony said, clearing his throat. “How are you finding married life?”

“It’s been a pretty okay 85 minutes so far.” Bucky shrugged. “I haven’t felt a surging wave of regret yet, so I’m taking that as a good sign.”

They both laughed and Bucky took the opportunity to slip away and try to relocate his husband. He worked his way through the crowd of people, speeding through the small talk as he went.

“No, grandma, we aren’t having kids yet.”

“Yes, Ida, it’s _such_ a shame your famously homophobic ex-husband couldn’t make it.”

“If you and Clint are looking for baby name suggestions, James is a good one.”

Eventually he found himself encircled by his work colleagues, still with no idea where Steve was.

“You did good, Buck.” Ororo told him, clapping him on the shoulder and grinning. “That was one good looking man you just bagged.”

“Uh huh.” He said, smiling politely. He did bag a good looking man, if only he could actually look at him.

“His best man wasn’t too bad either.” Rhodey added, laughing when Ororo rolled her eyes at him.

“Yeah, Sam’s always a crowd pleaser.” Bucky said quietly, the cogs in his head gradually turning. “Wait, shit, that reminds me. Have you guys seen the Captain?”

“He’s with his sister.” Ororo said, gesturing behind him.

“Great, I’ll talk to you later.”

He darted off before either of them got a chance to respond, locating Sam by the doors before making his way over to T’Challa.

“Captain!” He said breathlessly when he reached him.

“James! Congratulations, it was a beautiful ceremony. Have you met Shuri?” T’Challa asked, gesturing to his sister.

“Yeah, hi.” Bucky said as he threw her a quick wave. “I was.. uh, did you still want me to introduce you to-”

“Yes!” T’Challa said abruptly. “Shuri, do you mind if I.. leave you for a moment.”

Shuri looked at them both for a moment before cocking her eyebrow knowingly at T’Challa and nodding. “I’m sure I can mingle for a while.” She said smugly, patting his shoulder.

Bucky had never seen T’Challa look embarrassed before. In fact he’d never really seen him look anything other than confident. Smirking at him, he took T’Challa’s arm and led him over to Sam.

“Hey, man.” Sam said when he saw him. “Who’s this?”

“This is-”

“T’Challa.” He said before Bucky could finish, holding his hand out to Sam. “We met briefly.”

“Yeah.. yeah I remember.”

Bucky looked back and forth at the two of them as they made intense eye contact, rocking back on his heels and clapping his hands together. “Okay! Well while you guys uh.. bond.. I’m gonna go find my husband.”

“Oh, he’s with your parents.” Sam told him, not taking his eyes off T’Challa. “Said he wanted to find you.”

“Brilliant. You guys have.. fun.”

Bucky finger gunned them, instantly regretted it, and then spun on his heel and dashed off to find his parents.

The relief that washed over him when he spotted Steve talking to his parents was indescribable, and Steve looked just as happy to see him when he reached them, immediately wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him into his chest.

“Hi.” Bucky breathed, melting against him. “I’ve been looking for you for ages.”

“Me too. I figured if I just waited by your parents you’d just show up eventually. Where have you been?”

“Mingling.” He mumbled. “I’m pretty good at it.”

Steve looked doubtful, cocking an eyebrow at him and smirking. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah! I mean, it sucked, but I don’t think anybody could tell that I thought it sucked, so I think that makes me good at it?”

“I guess so.” Steve shrugged, looking him up and down and tilting his head playfully. “Do you wanna go somewhere a little more private?”

Frowning, Bucky looked up at him in confusion. “Why?”

“Because you look really hot and I wanna make out with you?”

“Oh!” He said, blushing. “Okay.”

“Where are you two going?” His mom asked when she saw them heading off.

“To get champagne.” Steve said.

“To make out.” Bucky said simultaneously.

They both looked at each other, then at her, before grabbing each other’s hands and making a swift exit.

Bucky had no idea where they were going, letting Steve take the lead as they practically ran through the doors and down a winding corridor. It was weirdly exhilarating, even though it was their wedding and they could probably do what they wanted, he felt like they were breaking some kind of unspoken rule by sneaking off like this. He felt like a schoolkid ditching class.   
Steve took a sharp turn, pulling him through an open door and shutting it behind them. It looked like a lounge area, but Bucky didn’t get much of a chance to survey the area before Steve was crowding him against the wall, cupping his face in his hands and crashing their lips together. Taken aback by the suddenness, Bucky giggled against him, draping his arms over Steve’s shoulders and pulling him in closer. The intensity and the knowledge that somebody could walk in on them at any second was making his heart race, but it was a safe kind of intensity. He always felt safe with Steve. For the first year or so of their relationship, any time they were together his whole body would come alive with a noise of nerves and excitement that made it pretty much impossible to think straight. But it wasn’t like that now, it hadn’t been like that for a long time. Now the rest of the world was noisy and Steve quietened it down. The whole wedding, being rushed around for photos, making small talk with people he barely ever saw, that was a noisy, overwhelming kind of intense. But now, having his back pressed against a wall, with Steve’s hands running down to his hips, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip, this was a quiet intense.

They were both breathless when Steve pulled away, clinging on to each other and smiling like idiots.

“That was nice.” Bucky said after a few moments, grinning when Steve laughed. “You were certainly eager.”

“Uh huh.” Steve smirked, leaning down to press another chaste kiss to his lips.

“Is it the suit?” He asked. “It’s the suit isn’t it? My shiny suit turns you on.”

“Yeah. You look like a sexy robot.” Steve admitted.

Bucky blinked up at him for a second before almost doubling over with laughter, gripping Steve’s arms to keep himself upright. He could feel Steve shaking from laughing too.

“I’m sorry.” He said, trying to compose himself. “It does look good.”

“It makes me feel important,” Bucky told him. “Like I’m about to host the Oscars or something.”

“Oh that’s way simpler than what I was picturing.”

Tilting his head curiously, Bucky leant back against the wall and looked up at him expectantly. “Do share.”

“Right, so we’re at this big expensive party at the National Art Gallery, they’re unveiling a new exhibit or whatever.”

“Wow I can’t imagine whose exhibit it’s gonna be.”

“It’s not mine!” Steve said defensively. “I try to keep my fantasies _somewhat_ realistic.”

Bucky snorted and Steve narrowed his eyes at him, folding his arms. “Anyway,” He continued, “At this party I get talking to a famous art critic, and I’m trying to convince him to check out some of my work but he’s sceptical about it. But _then_ you come in and the crowd parts around you and they’re all staring at you in awe like ‘who is he?’, and you come up to me and I put my arm around you and kiss your cheek and then I turn back to the art critic like ‘oh, and this is my husband’ and suddenly I’m the most powerful man in the room.”

Steve looked at him proudly, raising his eyebrows expectantly as he waited for a response.

“Is that it?”

“What do you mean ‘is that it’?” Steve asked indignantly. “You just became the trophy husband in a room full of stuck up rich people and that’s not enough for you? Everybody in that room wanted you, Buck.”

“No, no, I liked that part. I’m just invested in the story now. Did the critic guy look at your work or not?”

“I don’t know. Probably not.”

“What an asshole. We should throw a rock through his car window.”

“It’s not real, babe.” Steve reminded him. “This is supposed to be a hot fantasy, not a revolt against the art world.”

“You’re right. We should _fuck_ on his car.”

“That’s not what I.. actually yeah that would be good.” He said, nodding to himself. “How did we even end up talking about this?”

“No clue.” Bucky shrugged. “Maybe we should make out some more. You know, so we don’t get distracted again.”

“That’s a really good idea.”

He had no idea how long they were in there for. Somewhere along the line they ended up on a couch, Bucky straddling his lap and Steve holding his hips firmly. Time lost all meaning until the door slammed open, startling them both.

“There you are.” Sharon said, exasperated. “I’ve just spent 20 minutes looking for you.”

“Uh.. we were just..” Steve trailed off, looking up at Bucky blankly.

“Yeah, I can see that.” She said flatly. “Come on, you’re gonna miss lunch.”

Bucky sat upright, his interest suddenly piqued. “We can’t miss lunch, Stevie. Quit messing around.”

He ate two lunches. One of his own and another made up from everyone else’s leftovers, plus six pieces of bread, and some chips his mom had in her bag. The only thing keeping him from falling asleep on Steve’s shoulder was Sam and Clint’s join best man speech. Which was less of a speech, and more of a roast, as the pair of them competed to see who could tarnish their respective friend’s reputation the most.

“Did they rehearse this?” He asked, looking up at Steve. “Or do they just hate us?”

“Bit of both?” Steve shrugged.

“I was shocked to hear that it was Steve who ended up proposing.” Clint said into the mic, pausing to look directly into Bucky’s eyes. “Given the amount of times I’ve caught Bucky on his knees for another man.”

“Come on, dude. My grandma’s here.”

“I don’t mind!” His grandma called out, earning a laugh from everyone in the room.

“I was shocked at how long it took for a proposal to happen.” Sam started. “But then I remembered that these guys spent a full month making out and sharing a bed, and still wouldn’t admit they even liked each other. And even after they got over that hurdle, we had to spend another two months convincing them to actually do something about it.”

“Every day Bucky would tell me there was no chance that Steve liked him,” Clint continued. “And every day I would pat him on the shoulder, look him in the eye, and tell him ‘you’re an idiot’.”

“Every night Steve would lie awake, listing reasons he’d be a bad fit for Bucky. And every night I would roll over, smile comfortingly at him, and whisper ‘please go the fuck to sleep’.”

“And it’s thanks to our patient and caring nature that we’re all here today.”

After the speeches a few of the tables were cleared away, a DJ came in to play music, and everyone went back to socialising. Steve left to talk to some work friends, while Bucky chose to stay at the table with his parents. His mom spent almost twenty minutes showing him all the photos she’d taken so far.

“Just how much storage space does this phone have?” He asked as she scrolled through.

“I deleted a _lot_ this morning. She told him. “And I still have a camera in my bag for backup.”

“I have one too.” His dad added, pulling it out of his pocket. “She made me bring it.”

“Well I didn’t want to risk us missing something!”

“Freddie, you’ve probably missed half the day because you were too busy photographing it.”

Rolling her eyes, she tutted at him and turned back to Bucky. “Have _you_ enjoyed your day, sweetheart?”

“I think so.” He said slowly. “Everything’s been happening so fast, I don’t think I’ve taken anything in yet. It’ll probably hit me when I go to bed.”

“I’m sure something will be hitting you in bed tonight.” His grandma said from across the table, shrugging when everyone looked at her in disgust. “It’s his wedding night, don’t pretend we don’t all know what’s going on.”

“Grandma, I am a child of God.”

“We all heard that best man’s speech, babydoll. We all know what you got up to in college.”

Bucky buried his face in his hands and made a mental note to cut off all ties with Clint as soon as possible.

“Okay, I’m gonna go get a drink.” He said, getting to his feet and making a dash for the bar before his grandma could get another word in about his sex life.

Conveniently, Clint was already at the bar when he got there, waving at him as he walked over.

“Hey, man.” He said cheerfully, holding a glass out towards him. “Champagne?”

Nodding, Bucky took the glass from him. “Thanks. By the way we’re not friends anymore.”

“I didn’t realise we ever were.”

“You’re hilarious. My grandma won’t stop talking about sex because of you.”

“I’m not gonna apologise for liberating her.” Clint shrugged. “She’s a grown woman.”

“Telling my 90 year old grandmother that I once sucked a guy’s dick in a public library bathroom is not _liberating_ her.”

Clint snorted and Bucky narrowed his eyes at him, trying his hardest not to laugh. He didn’t last long, and soon the pair of them were leant against the bar laughing.

“You’re such an ass.” Bucky managed to say after a few moments.

“But I’m an ass that you love.”

“Oh yeah, you’re my favourite ass.”

Bucky felt a hand on his waist and looked up to see Steve smiling down at him.

“What’s that about asses?” He asked, sniggering when Bucky elbowed him in the ribs.

“Trust you to show up for that.” Bucky muttered. “What are you doing here? I thought you were socialising?”

“I was. The DJ just asked me when we wanted to do the first dance, so I thought I’d come find you.”

“Oh jeeze, I need to down five more of these before we do that.” Bucky said, knocking back the glass of champagne he was holding.

“Buck, you like dancing.”

“Yeah, in our kitchen, or when everyone else is also dancing. Not when it’s just me in the middle of a room with absolutely everybody else watching.”

Steve rolled his eyes, grabbing his hand and dragging him across the room to the dance floor. “It’s gonna be fun.” He told him, nodding over at the DJ who started calling everybody over. “I’ll just talk to you the whole time and you’ll forget people are watching. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“And if you still don’t like it you can hide your face in my jacket until it’s over.”

Bucky nodded, wrapping his arms around him tightly and resting his head on Steve’s shoulder, looking up at him intently. A crowd had formed in a circle around them and he could feel everybody’s eyes on him, but he tried to focus all his attention on Steve’s face.

It had taken them ages to pick a song. Eventually Steve decided he wanted Can’t Help Falling In Love With You, because it reminded him of when Bucky had first told him he loved him. Bucky still thought it was a cliché, but he’d ended up making most of the decisions around this wedding so he’d decided to let Steve have this one.

He sighed as the song started, shaking his head and smiling to himself.

“What are you smiling at?” Steve asked softly, holding on to his waist as they swayed in time to the music.

“This is the cheesiest song ever.”

“I know.” He grinned. “I love it.”

“You’re such a dork.” Bucky giggled. “I love you.”

“Mm. Remember the first time you said that?”

“Uh huh.”

“Made me so happy.”

“I know. You’ve told me that about 12 times in the last couple of weeks.”

Steve chuckled, leaning over to kiss his forehead and pulling him closer.

For all his complaining, the whole experience wasn’t that bad, and he was almost sad when the song ended. The mood in the room immediately changed again as a more upbeat song came on, and soon they were surrounded by other dancing couples.

The night waned on, and despite having a few more drinks, Bucky eventually found himself too tired to make conversation anymore. Slipping away from the group of Tony’s friends he’d found himself talking to, he found Steve sat at a table and plopped himself onto his lap without warning.

“Oh, hi.” He said, chuckling as Bucky made himself comfortable. “What’s up?”

“’M tired.” Bucky murmured. “Is it cool if I just stay here for the rest of the night?”

“I mean.. sure. Or we could just go to bed.”

“It’s our wedding. Aren’t we obligated to stay down here?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh.” He said, sitting upright. “In that case, can we go to bed?”

He nodded, and they both weaved their way through the tables to the door. Steve seemed to know where they were supposed to be going, leading him up a flight of stairs and pulling a key out of his pocket.

“Where did you get that?”

“Sharon gave it to me before she left.” He explained. “We have a honeymoon suite.”

“I hope there’s a heart shaped hot tub.”

“Bucky, you’ve seen photos of the rooms. You know there’s no hot tub.”

“I can still hope.” Bucky shrugged.

They came to a stop outside a dark polished door, and Steve spent a few moments jiggling the key in the lock before finally managing to get it open. It was a big room, with tall windows looking out onto the docks, but Bucky’s attention was immediately grabbed by the huge bed at the left of the room, which had been covered in dozens of rose petals.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Steve asked, looking over at him.

“That those will be a nightmare for the cleaners to vacuum up?”

“Oh. I was thinking we should both jump onto the bed and make a mess.”

They both looked at each other for a moment before running over to the bed and flinging themselves onto it and giggling like kids when the petals flew everywhere. Once the laughter had passed, Bucky rolled onto his side, wriggling closer and snuggling up against him.

“So listen, I know it’s our wedding night and we’re supposed to be having mind blowing sex or whatever, but I’m really tired and I pretty much just wanna put some pyjamas on and lie here.”

“Yeah that’s fine, I definitely can’t manage mind blowing right now.” Steve chuckled. “Do you think that’s even really a thing that happens after weddings? I bet most people are too tired.”

“I don’t know.” Bucky said as he clambered off the bed and. “I guess for a lot of people it’s probably less time consuming.”

Their bags were piled neatly in the opposite corner of the room and he padded over to them, rifling through his to find some pyjamas. Once he was changed, he turned back around and found that Steve had stripped down to just his boxers, and was laying spread eagle on the bed.

“I see you’ve made yourself comfortable.” He said flatly.

“Mmhmm.” Steve hummed, sitting upright and smiling over at him. “Can you bring my bag over? I wanna give you your present.”

“My.. Oh!”

Bucky grabbed Steve’s bag from the pile, passing it over to him and clambering onto the bed. He twiddled his thumbs while Steve dug through the bag, until finally he pulled out a square package. It was perfectly wrapped in shiny purple paper with a gold ribbon tied in a neat bow around it, and Bucky sighed as he ran his hands over it.

“Why do you always wrap things so pretty? I don’t wanna ruin it.”

“I spent ages on that ribbon.” Steve admitted. “But you have to open it, come on.”

Reluctantly, Bucky tore the paper away to reveal a dusty blue book. It had been hand bound with brown string, and in the centre of the cover there was an old photo of them, framed with a silver heart.

“Is it a photo album?” He asked, glancing up at him.

“Kind of.”

“You’re so cute.” Bucky said as he leant against him, carefully turning the first page. “Oh my god.”

The first two pages were covered in a mix of photos and drawings, all from the very first Christmas they’d spent together. There were photos of all sorts; the blanket fort they’d built, Steve covered in Christmas decorations, selfies of the two of them, but all of the drawings were of him.

“When did you do all these?”

“Years ago.” Steve told him, looking down at the book. “You remember when you found one of my sketchbooks in the closet and I wouldn’t let you look in it?”

“And I thought it was full of porn drawings.”

“Well it was mostly full of these.”

“There were porn drawings in there too though, right?”

“Oh yeah, I’d say it was about 30% porn.”

Bucky nodded thoughtfully. “Can I see it when we get home?”

“Sure.” Steve chuckled. “But can we focus on this for now? I spent ages on it.”

Grinning, Bucky looked back down at the book. Steve had dated all of the photos and drawings, and a few had little handwritten annotations next to them. On the next few pages were pictures from some of their dates, of them moving in together, and all kinds of places they’d been to and things they’d done. He could feel himself welling up as all the emotions and events of the day finally started to catch up with him, and the next thing he knew he was full on sobbing.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asked, tilting his face towards him and stroking his cheek.

“Nothing, I just love you a lot.” Bucky choked. “I love you so much, and we got married.. in front of people. And now we’re gonna be together for our whole lives and you always make me so happy so I’m just gonna be happy for my whole life now and I love you and I’m feeling a lot.”

Chuckling, Steve wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into his chest. “I love you too.” He whispered, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

“Even though I cry at everything?”

“Uh huh. You didn’t cry during the wedding though. You shocked us all.”

“I know.” Bucky sniffled. “You did though, a little. I saw you.”

“I didn’t cry. My eyes were wet.”

“That’s what crying is.” He giggled, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand and nestling his head against Steve’s chest. “You were overcome with emotion. Admit it.”

“I may have cried a tiny bit.” Steve mumbled. “I was happy. Today’s been the best day ever.”

Bucky nodded, closing his eyes and listening to Steve’s heartbeat for a few minutes.

“Stevie?” He said after a few minutes, looking back up at him. “You know how you’re always talking about the first time I told you I loved you?”

“Mmhmm.”

“I think about the first time you said it a lot. If you hadn’t said it right then.. I don’t think any of this would have even happened.”

Steve looked thoughtful for a moment, chewing on his lip before finally saying, “I don’t think that’s true. I think we’d always have ended up together.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean.. I don’t know, I’m probably being stupid.” He said, smiling to himself. “The only reason we even met was because of a long chain of coincidences. You happened to lose your book, then you happened to go to the library for it, and I happened to need the same one, and you happened to write on the same page I was reading, and then we both happened to be in the library at the same time. It’s kinda like someone was trying to get us to meet each other.”

“Steve, are you implying that we’re soulmates.”

“I don’t know, I guess.” Steve shrugged, chuckling when Bucky smiled up at him. “I told you I was being stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. It’s cute.”

“Well either way we’re here now. So whichever decision is was that got us here, I’m glad it happened.”

Bucky nodded, laying down on the bed and pulling Steve down with him. “It was really lucky I dropped that book in a puddle.”

“It really was.”


End file.
